Pascoe, Leslie in record-breaking form
Kiwi para swimmers Sophie Pascoe and Cameron Leslie broke three world records in Australia at the weekend.
Superstar Pascoe set new marks in the women’s S9 classification in the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle, while Leslie’s world record came in the men’s S4 100m backstroke and smashed a mark that had stood for over a decade.
Pascoe’s time of 28.15 seconds in the butterfly obliterated the previous record set in 2017 of 30.96sec by Spain’s Sarai Gascon.
The 26-year-old finished second in the multi-class 50m freestyle final behind France’s Claire Supiot while setting a new world record classification time of 28.14sec, beating American Michelle Konkoly’s previous mark by 0.10sec.
Leslie won gold with his S4 world record in the 100m backstroke in 1:34.42. That took almost 3sec off the previous record of 1:37.33 set by Mexico’s Juan Reyes in 2008.
Leslie also won gold in the 100m freestyle and 50m free.
‘‘Lots of races to get under my belt, but it’s awesome to be back racing again after a quiet two years,’’ Leslie said. ‘‘It’s nice to be back in a competitive environment.
‘‘We’ve got a big Kiwi team here this time, with a lot of development swimmers coming over and getting internationally classified. It’s good experience for them and good to be part of this World Series event and see where the bar is at.
‘‘I’m going year-by-year at the moment, but Tokyo [for the 2020 Paralympic Games] is definitely in my mind and I’m looking forward to going there and competing.’’
Fellow Kiwi para swimmer Tupou Neiufi won gold in the women’s 50m backstroke in 35.33sec on the final day of the meet while Helena Gasson won gold in the open women’s 200m individual medley in 2:16.31.