Rio rejoice for NZ Paralympics swim team

The New Zealand swim team concluded their successful Paralympic in Rio with six gold medals, to better their winning efforts from London four years ago.

They finished with 10 medals in all and 21 finals, with more than half of the swims in personal best times.

Once again the remarkable Sophie Pascoe led the way with three gold medals and two silver medals to bring her Paralympic tally to a stunning 15 medals, with signs that the 23 year old is aiming at nothing less than further improvement ahead of Tokyo 2020.

The other gold medals went to Mary Fisher, Cameron Leslie and 17 year old Nikita Howarth who also claimed a bronze for her first Paralympics medals.

The campaign ended fittingly with firm eyes on the future when 16 year old Wanaka swimmer, a late call-up to the team, was fifth in his heat of the 100m freestyle S6 in a personal best time of 1:15.30. He set personal best times in three of his four swims to establish himself as a Para-Swimmer of the future.

In other swims over the final weekend in the pool, Jesse Reynolds finished seventh in the 100m backstroke S9 in a PB time of 1:05.57 while 15-years-old debutant Tupou Neiufi was seventh in her first Paralympics final in the 100m backstroke S9, taking nearly two seconds off her previous best.

Gold medallists Mary Fisher and Cameron Leslie were 6^th in the 200m individual medley SM11 and eighth in the 50m backstroke S5 respectively, while Rebecca Dubber was ninth in the 100m freestyle S7.

CAPTION: Sophie Pascoe. Credit BW Media

Rio 2016 Paralympic