Super Sophie strikes gold again

Superstar Sophie Pascoe has done it again. The 19 year old has won her third gold medal at the Paralympics in London today.

The Christchurch swimmer, from the QEII club, was all class in setting a new Paralympics record on the way to winning the women’s C10 100m freestyle.

She topped the qualifiers with a Paralympics record of 1:01.17, but lowered that again in the final, winning in 1:00.89, just a whisker off the world record.

Sophie held off rivals Elodie Lorandi (FRA) and Summer Mortimer (CAN) in an exciting final.

It is Sophie’s fifth medal following her gold in the 200m individual medley, silver in the 50m freestyle, gold in the 100m butterfly and silver in the 100m backstroke.

It is also New Zealand’s 14^th medal of the Paralympics, to cement it as the most successful medal haul.

Sophie, coached by Roly Crichton, is not done yet as she competes in the 100m breaststroke on the final day of competition on Sunday (NZ time), while both Aine Kelly-Costello and Mary Fisher are in the pool tomorrow while Daniel Sharp and Fisher join her in competition on the final day.

In other swims today North Shore’s Rebecca Dubber was fifth in the 400m freestyle in 5:30.05. The 19^th year old, coached by Gary Francis, went quicker with a 5:27.79 to place fifth fastest in the heats.

Auckland-based Northlander Cameron Leslie was also fifth today in the final of the 50m backstroke where he established a new Oceania record of 42.40s.