New Zealand swimming stars heading to Glasgow 2015

“This has been a tremendous week for New Zealand in the sport of para-swimming

Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ) announced their team for July’s 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, Great Britain, on Friday (17 April).

It follows a stellar week of competition at the Swimming NZ Open Championships where eight swimmers earned their place with outstanding performances.

Six of the eight strong team will recall their historical performances at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal, Canada, where New Zealand won 15 medals – the biggest ever medal haul by a New Zealand team at this event. This included 12 gold medals and three world records, with the team placing fourth on the medal table.

Jon Shaw, Head Performance Coach, para-swimming, said, “We have got a very strong team with great depth of experience and enthusiasm.” He continues, “They have shown amazing form in the pool this week and we believe we have a high chance of medal success in Glasgow.”

The team includes six Paralympians. Reigning five-time world champion Sophie Pascoe will undoubtedly go into the World Championships with high hopes after setting two women’s S10 world records at the Swimming NZ Open Championships. The 100m freestyle (59.77) world record and 100m butterfly (1:03.72) mark now belong to Pascoe.

Also in blistering form this week was world and Paralympic champion Cameron Leslie who swam his fastest time since London 2012 in the 150m individual medley SM4.

Mary Fisher, a triple world champion in women’s S11 events, and 200m individual medley SM7 gold medallist Nikita Howarth recorded times this week that will see them go to Glasgow ranked number one in the world for 2014 in their top events.

Paralympian Rebecca Dubber will look to build on her performances at the Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships last year where she swam her fastest times since London 2012.

Jesse Reynolds will join the team and is eagerly looking forward to his second World Championships event.

An exciting addition to the team is newcomer Hamish McLean. At just 15 years of age Hamish is looking to gain invaluable experience from this event. He will be joined by Georgia Gray, also her first World Championships event.

Malcolm Humm, High Performance Director, PNZ, said, “This has been a tremendous week for New Zealand in the sport of para-swimming. In 2012 PNZ developed a strategy with the intent of being a world leader in the sport of para-swimming.

“We set a goal to produce more athletes who would reach the level required to achieve medal winning performances at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

“With the performance of the likes of Hamish McLean and Georgia Gray we believe we are tracking well towards this goal due to athletes being recipients of high quality coaching and support services from High Performance Sport New Zealand.”

Glasgow 2015 team

Nikita Howarth, S7

Cameron Leslie, S5, SB3, SM4

Hamish McLean, S6

Sophie Pascoe, S10, SB9

Jesse Reynolds, S9, SB8

Rebecca Dubber, S7, SB6, SM7

Mary Fisher, S11

Georgia Gray, S9

The 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships will feature around 650 of the world’s best swimmers from 50 countries. Tickets are available from GBP 10/15 for adults for heats/finals at www.ticketmaster.co.uk/Glasgow2015.

Media accreditation is also available at Glasgow2015.com.