Swimming: Pascoe and Howarth win gold

Sophie Pascoe. Photo / Simon Watts.

It was a day of medal success for the New Zealand Para-Swimming team in Glasgow with Sophie Pascoe and Nikita Howarth each winning a Gold medal.

Sophie Pascoe was first out for the Kiwis in her favourite race, the Women's S10 100m Butterfly. Pascoe took the lead from the start and swam a blistering time of 1:03.74, only 0.02 seconds over her own world record. As the event commentators said Pascoe pushes herself to her absolute limit in every race - this was no exception.

Nikita Howarth returned to the pool after winning her first Gold yesterday. She swam a great race in the Women's S7 50m Butterfly and rival Courtney Jordan (USA) was no real match as Howarth won Gold in a time of 35.93.

Howarth commented after her final, "I did a pretty good time in the heat and then followed it up in the final. I was really happy with my swim and Gold medal. Two Gold medals so far, you cannot ask for more than that."

Cameron Leslie swam a great heat to qualify for the Men's SB3 50m Breaststroke final. This is not Cameron's favoured event and his time of 57.13 saw him place 8th.

Jon Shaw (Head Performance Coach, Para-Swimming) said, "Tonight saw outstanding achievements by both Sophie and Nikita. Sophie defended her World Championship title and Nikita won her second Gold of the Championships. These results are very exciting and we are looking forward to these events at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games." He continues, "In Mary's event (Women's S11 50m Freestyle) there was deemed interference by two swimmers in the event and in the interest of fair play the referee deemed the race will be re swam. It is still to be confirmed however at this stage it looks like the race will be re swam as the first race on the programme on Monday morning NZ time."

Jesse Reynolds (Men's S9 100m Butterfly) was in action in the morning heats placing 5th in time of 1:04.59. He was joined by fellow Kiwi Hamish Mclean (Men's SM6 200m Individual Medley) placing 6th in time of 3:14.19. Although they did not qualify for the final both Reynolds and Mclean swam personal best times. Reynolds took close to a second off his PB.

All eyes will once again be on the Kiwis as five of the team take to the pool on Day 6 aiming to add to the medal tally. The New Zealand Para-Swimming team have now won 13 medals including 7 Gold, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze.