Paralympic updates

Day 4 and 5 couldn't have been any different for the kiwis in Lodondon.... Mary Fisher andCameron Leslie both performed outstandingly well as did Phillipa Gray and Laura Thompson at the Velerdrome , Leslie and the tandem cyclists both grabbed HUGE WORLD RECORDS as well as GOLD in their respective events. Shooter Michael Johnson got BRONZE. Contreversy overshadowed what was a superb day at the main stadium as Oscar Pistoriuswas beaten by Alain Olivera in the T43/44 200m and then claimed the younster from Brazil had an unfair advantage as his blades are considerably longer than his so he gets a bigger stride!! Aled Davies won GOLD in the Discus for GB with a new European Record!! Kelly Cartwright of Australia won GOLD in the F42/44 Long Jump!! Day 5 was the first day on which NZ failed to medal so far with a closest being a 9th place to Becs Dubber in the S7 100m Freestyle. David Weir Mbe claimed GOLD for GB in the T54 5km with Australia's Kurt Fearnley coming home in 2nd place. Day 6 looks to be one where we should be back among the medals with Sophie Pascoe attempting to win her 3rd GOLD in the S10 100m Backstroke , Dubber will race for the second time in two days as she goes for GOLD in the S7 50m Freestyle. Daniel Holt will be favourite for a medal in his favoured 400m Freestyle S13. Tim Prendergast and Peter Martin are medal prospects at the main stadium.

by Jack Woods 

NZ's 11 medals

NEW ZEALAND TEAM - 11 MEDALS AND RANKED 11^TH IN WORLD

What a fantastic start to the London 2012 Paralympic Games – New Zealand has won 4 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze medals! Paralympics New Zealand congratulates the following:

Sophie Pascoe                     Gold      World Record    Women’s 200m Individual Medley SM10

                                                   Gold      World Record    Women’s 100m Butterfly S10

                                                   Silver    Women’s 50m Freestyle S10

Cameron Leslie                   Gold      World Record    Men’s 150m Individual Medley SM4

Phillipa Gray & Laura Thompson (Pilot)   Gold      World Record    Women’s Individual B Pursuit

                                                                                   Bronze                  Women’s B Kilo

Mary Fisher                           Silver                    Women’s 100m Backstroke S11

                                                   Silver                    Women’s 100m Freestyle S11

                                                   Bronze                  Women’s 50m Freestyle S11

Fiona Southorn                   Bronze                  Women’s C5 Individual Pursuit

Michael Johnson                Bronze                  R5 10m Air Rifle Standing

!00m fly

had my first race this morning the mens 100m Fly didnt make the final but got 2 PB's in the frist 50m and overall for the 100m took 3 seconds off my current personal best and came away with the NZ record.

Paralympic opening

Walking in 

well of there is to say about the opening to the Paralympics is wow the show was amazing the crowd was huge and it was all topped of buy a hell of a fireworks display

Inside the stadium

Kiwis to make a medal winning splash in the 2012 Paralympic pool

The New Zealand Paralympic management team make no bones about the expectations of the 2012 team, with both Chef de Mission Duane Kale and High Performance Director Malcolm Humm reaffirming their desire for eighteen medals to be boarding the flight bound for the other side of the world come September the 12th.

Whilst eighteen medals might seem like a steep ask for a team of just 24 athletes, both men are confident the selection criteria means that’s a calculated expectation. 

“Our selection criteria was pretty black and white to be honest, it was put up a medal winning performance here in London or put up a top 6 and be a medal prospect for Rio, we’ve got no tourists here”, said Humm.

What colour they might be hasn’t been discussed but one of the seven sports New Zealand will compete in stands well above the rest in expected deliverables. 

The Aquatic centre should see the kiwi flag hoisted more times than any other venue during the games, as many as 12 times if Kale and Humm’s predictions are to come to fruition. 

19 year old Sophie Pascoe is without doubt the headline act, but the supporting crew are worth the ticket price alone. Rebecca Dubber, Cameron Leslie, Daniel Holt, Aine Kelly-Costello, Daniel Sharp, Mary Fisher and even thirteen year old Nikita Howarth are all capable of a podium spot in London.

High Performance director Malcolm Humm believes it’s by no accident that New Zealand’s swimming contingent are in the strong position they’re in, “It’s a known fact that the bulk of our medals are likely to come from our swim team, we have a group of 8 who are all top 5 in the world and swimming really well, so there is the expectation that the bulk will come from them, backed up by our bike team who are all in form and have competed well at the last world champs."

“I don’t think it’s any fluke we are in the position we are in now, we have a talent identification programme, development programme that’s seeing young athletes from the age of five, six and seven, and we're targeting them for four to eight years down the track."

Humm also believes Pascoe’s 4 medal heroics in Beijing have contributed significantly to the increased interest in the discipline. “We had Sophie Pascoe win her four medals in Beijing, she was the only female athlete and now we have five female athletes [competing in the pool] so it comes back to inspiration as well."

Updates from London

Since my last update a lot has happened we have now finished at our holding camp. We departed from Swansea yesterday, so most of the day was spend driving from Swansea to London the trip to the Paralympic village ended up taking around 5 ½ hours, so it was a long trip. We didn’t get into our rooms until around 6 last night, it is fair to say we were all a little tired by that point.

My Room 

View from my room 

Today I had my first day off from training since last week, which has been nice as it has been a good chance to get to know my way around the village. This morning after breakfast I finished off rearranging my room so that I am now able to open my window. Once we were all settled in a bit better the three male swimmer’s Cam, Dan, and myself took the team trikes and went for a ride around the village. Apparently the Paralympic village this time is much smaller the pervious games but in my opinion its still pretty big. There are lots of things to see and do so still finding out new things that I don’t know about.

Paralympic village

I have just got back from the aquatics center where we had a tour of the venue. All I can say is that it is one of the most impressive pools that I have been to so far and am really looking ford to racing in it.   

Aquatics centre 

Updates from Swansea

Today marks day five of our holding camp in Swansea. So far we haven’t really had the chance to look around the city all to much, the weather has been shifty at best. The first day that we were here it was sunny but we were all to tired from our flight to go out and have a look around, we were more interested in getting settled in and having a bit of a rest before our training session in the pool that afternoon. Since that one day of sun the weather has been mostly overcast when I first woke up this morning it was sunny so I decided I would go and have a bit of a look around the town. But by the time I had had breakfast it was to wet to go out.

Last night we were invited to be guests at one Swansea’s rugby teams preseason matches between Osprey and Bath at the Ospreys home stadium the Liberty Stadium. Unfortunately the Osprey lost but it was still nice to get out for the afternoon. After the match we were invited back up to the Players Lounge where the team went after the game.

At the Osprey

Liberty Stadium

Training here has been good the Swansea pool staff have been extremely accommodating for us all and have giving us loads of lane space to use. Today I have the day off with no training so am making the most of the brake.

Training Pool