Trailblazer Lowry making waves in fast lane
Swimming at an international level is not just about personal opportunity for Amanda Lowry — it’s also about being a trailblazer for future paraathletes.
Lowry has returned home to Tauranga after competing in the 2018 Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships in Cairns last week where she not only took to the pool in her first international swimming meet, but she also clocked up two personal bests.
She travelled to Australia with the New Zealand Para-Swimming Team to compete in the event, and it was not only a first for Lowry but a first for the New Zealand team.
Never before had anyone with Lowry’s level of impairment swum for the side. With the support of her coach Mike Lee and High Performance Sport New Zealand, Lowry says everyone is figuring things out as they go.
“There has never been anyone like me so it’s about seeing what is possible,” she says.
Lowry became a tetraplegic in 2013, after she dived off her surfboard and broke her neck on a sandbar. The mum-of-two has been training hard in the past six months and is looking forward to becoming internationally classified in February next year, then working towards the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
“It’s about creating pathways for anyone else coming along after me.”
At her first international competition last week, Lowry swam in the 50m backstroke and the 100m freestyle, knocking six seconds off her previous personal best in the freestyle event.
“It was quite surreal. I’m around these incredible athletes, I just feel so lucky.”
But it was not luck but determination and hours of training that got Lowry this far.
She says her training has ramped up to five days a week in the pool, where she has felt herself become faster.
Lowry says despite everything still being new with her swimming, she has noticed more sensation in her belly and back. She says she’s going to continue to build on her skills.
“I want people to see me and think ‘I can bloody do that too’.” Management spokesman said there was no threat to New Zealand.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said small tsunami waves had been observed but no hazard was expected for any coastline.
Kiwis caught up in the first quake described the moment the strong tremor hit. Cara Michael, in Fiji with her family, told the Herald “buildings were swaying, made you feel a bit seasick almost, but it stopped after about half a minute”.
Another Kiwi, James Wilson, was holidaying on Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu: “I was on Queen Sa¯lote wharf in Nuku’alofa, sitting on a bench, and the bench started rocking.
“Had been cycling all morning, so thought it was just my legs feeling the workout from the bike, but now know it was the quake,” Wilson said.
One Kiwi emailed to say he was on a small Tongan island off Nuku’alofa when the ground began to shake.
“Sitting on the beach. It was a great shake which had us all looking at each other in disbelief, then thinking of high ground. Only thing higher than sea level was the coconut trees.”
One person in Lautoka, Fiji, said they felt the whole building shake, making them think it was flexible.
No casualties were expected based on initial readings and there had been no reports of damage.