Fisher grabs world record, Pascoe makes it 200 medals for NZ

Wellington swimmer Mary Fisher has set a new world record on her way to the gold medal on the second day of action at the Paralympics in Rio today.

It proved a double medal day in the pool for New Zealand with Sophie Pascoe winning the silver medal to go along with the bronze medal won by Rebecca Dubber on the first day.

The visually-impaired Fisher, 23, was in brilliant form in the women’s S11 100m backstroke, after topping qualifiers in the morning heats in 1:18.68. The eight-time world champion was pushed hard over the first 50m of the final, but a brilliant turn saw her push clear to win in 1:17.96 which broke the previous record nearly 0.4s.

Fisher grabbed the first gold medal for New Zealand in the pool at Rio, finishing more than two seconds clear of Liwen Cai (CHN) and Maja Reichard (SWE).

“I am so, so happy and thankful to all the people that have supported me within sport and all the people who make me a better person outside of sport,” said Mary Fisher.

“I am one person in the lane, but it feels like every kiwi and all the people around the world who have been supporting me and the New Zealand Team are there too – it’s all for them.”

Fisher said the experience at the pool was remarkable.

“We are in this little bubble in the Village but when you come to the pool deck and you’re being announced into a final and tonight, to be in lane 4 because I had set the fastest time this morning – it’s such a special feeling, that you can’t describe in words.

“You’ve got this big venue with 15,500 people and they are all going nuts, so the noise factor is amazing and you can feel the reverberations of how big the place is – it feels like you have this huge current swimming behind you.”

Fisher won four Paralympic medals in London four years ago with a gold in the 200m individual medley), two silvers (100m freestyle, 100m backstroke) and a bronze (50m freestyle).

Earlier Pascoe earned silver in the 50m freestyle S10 after a close battle with her rival Aurelie Rivard (CAN) who broke the world record to win in 27.37. Pascoe was second in a personal best 27.72, with the pair the only swimmers under the 28 second barrier.

It was fitting that the 11^th medal for the country’s most celebrated Paralympian should be New Zealand’s 200^th in the Paralympic history across all sports.

The third New Zealand swimmer in action was Jesse Reynolds who finished fifth in the 400m freestyle S9 in 4:35.04 and did not qualify for the final.

Fisher and Pascoe return to the pool tomorrow along with Hamish McLean who will be making his Paralympic debut.

The swimming action is live on Duke Channel.

CAPTION: Mary Fisher in action. Credit BW Media

Rio 2016 Paralympic