Swimmer excited and ‘gobsmacked’

Nikita Howarth was stunned when she opened a letter confirming she had been made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

The Cambridge para-swimmer turned 18 on Christmas Eve and she can reflect on another year of success, where she won gold and bronze medals at the Rio Paralympics in September, as well as setting a world record in Berlin in June.

Now Howarth, who at 13 became New Zealand’s youngest ever Paralympian in London in 2012, is kicking back with her family as 2016 comes to an end.

It’s been a year she will never forget.

Howarth was a double world champion heading to Rio, after winning two golds at the 2015 world championships - in the women’s 200m individual medley SM7 and the women’s 50m butterfly S7.

She claimed her first Paralympic medal with bronze in the 50m butterfly S7, before winning gold in the 200m individual medley SM7 and beating her rivals by almost five seconds.

Howarth’s achievements have been recognised in the New Year’s Honours list, after hours and hours of tough training and what she described as a ‘‘rough experience’’ in Orlando because of medical issues, prior to arriving in Rio.

But it was all worth it, in the end.

Being made a MNZM is her latest honour and her next target is Tokyo - the next city to host the Paralympics in 2020.

‘‘I was so excited, and also gobsmacked, because I didn’t really think anyone of my age would be able to get it.

‘‘Once I found out what it was, I was so honoured to get it.’’

Sophie Pascoe, another member of the para-swimming team that won 10 of New Zealand’s 18 medals in Rio, won the same honour aged 15, after winning three golds and one silver medal at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008.

Pascoe’s Paralympic medal count hit 15 in Rio and she surpassed Eve Rimmer’s record of 14 to become New Zealand’s most decorated Paralympian of all time, so Howarth is in esteemed company.