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

Pre Departure Update

Website Developments 

Over the past couple of weeks things have gotten pretty busy here is a quick update of some of what’s been going on in my life as I prepare to head off to London tomorrow. Firstly I have been doing a lot of work to my website www.danielholt.co.nz so that it is now much easier for people to follow me while I’m away. I have added a new section called “London 2012” under this tab you will find information on the Paralympic village, aquatic center, but most importantly I have but up a list of all my events in both UK time and NZ time so there is less confusion as to when I am racing. Also under the news and updates section you will find links to live racing footage, my facebook and twitter feeds, and my blog, which will be updated regularly while I am away.

Promotional Video 

Secondly I spent a morning working with the awesome team at Massey University to put together a video promoting both the university and myself if you haven’t yet seen this video it is well worth the watch you can find it here.  

  

School Visit 

Thirdly I returned to my old primary school. Sunnynook Primary who invited me to speak about my swimming and the upcoming Paralympic games. I Spent the afternoon showing them lots of photos and after I had finished talking there were lots of questions asked before I was presented with a card that they had made wishing me luck to my upcoming trip.

Sunnynook Middle School 

Talking to Sunnynook Senior School 

 General Updates

As well as this I have still been training as normal. For the last few weeks we have been conducting regular time trials to track my progress as we approach   the games. These have all been going well, I have been steadily getting closer to my Pb, which at this stage in our preparation is ahead of our targets. So things are all looking good so hit out some blinding swims once the games begin. I am now packed; I am starting on my journey to Swansea tomorrow, where we will be based in our holding camp until the 25^th of August. After which we will be moving into the London Village to finish off the rest of our preparation before the Paralympics start of the 29^th August. 

SKY SPORT ANNOUNCES UNPRECEDENTED LONDON 2012 PARALYMPIC GAMES COVERAGE

SKY SPORT ANNOUNCES UNPRECEDENTED LONDON 2012 PARALYMPIC GAMES COVERAGE
Sky Sport’s strong commitment to showcasing the feats of Paralympic athletes is set to continue with extensive coverage of the upcoming London 2012 Paralympic Games.

From the end of August through to the Closing Ceremony on September 10, SKY Sport will broadcast both the Day Session and Evening session highlights from the Paralympic Games hot off the satellite from the London. SKY Sport will also feature live coverage of both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The highlights from each day will feature in prime-time where at all possible, and on the SKY Sport Highlights Channel, replaying every three hours.

iSKY will feature Paralympic Games highlights for SKY Sport subscribers and Video-to-Mobile will feature the Opening and Closing ceremonies live as well as highlights.

Prime News: First at 5.30 and The Crowd Goes Wild will also feature Paralympic Games coverage in their bulletins.

The New Zealand Paralympic Games team features 26 athletes including 16 debutants competing for Gold against the world’s best. Kiwi athletes won a total of 12 medals in Beijing four years ago including five gold medals – three of those to swimmer Sophie Pascoe who is returning for her second Paralympic Games.

Paralympics New Zealand Secretary General and Chief Executive, Fiona Allan is delighted that New Zealanders can witness the inspiring performances of the amazing kiwi athletes competing at the Paralympic Games. As the Olympic Games draw to a close, she encourages the nation to get behind the New Zealand Paralympians.

SKY Sport HD Broadcast details:

Aug 30	Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony	SKY Sport 1	7.30am
	Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony	SKY Sport 3	5.30pm
Aug 31	Morning Highlights – Day One	SKY Sport 1	8.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day One	SKY Sport 3	2.00pm
	Evening Highlights – Day One	SKY Sport 1	5.30pm
Sep 1	Evening Highlights – Day One	SKY Sport 3	2.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Two	SKY Sport 2	9.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Two	SKY Sport 2	3.00pm
Sep 2	Evening Highlights – Day Two	SKY Sport 2	1.15am
	Morning Highlights – Day Three	SKY Sport 3	10.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Three	SKY Sport 1	6.30pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Three	SKY Sport 1	7.30pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Three	SKY Sport 2	11.00pm
Sep 3	Morning Highlights – Day Four	SKY Sport 3	10.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Four	SKY Sport 1	4.00pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Four	SKY Sport 1	7.30pm
Sep 4	Evening Highlights – Day Four	SKY Sport 3	12.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Five	SKY Sport 2	8.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Five	SKY Sport 1	12.30pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Five	SKY Sport 2	8.30pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Five	SKY Sport 1	11.00pm
Sep 5	Morning Highlights – Day Six	SKY Sport 2	7.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Six	SKY Sport 1	10.30am
	Evening Highlights – Day Six	SKY Sport 2	7.30pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Six	SKY Sport 3	10.00pm
Sep 6	Morning Highlights – Day Seven	SKY Sport 2	9.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Seven	SKY Sport 2	1.30pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Seven	SKY Sport 3	7.00pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Seven	SKY Sport 3	10.00pm
Sep 7	Morning Highlights – Day Eight	SKY Sport 2	7.30am
	Morning Highlights – Day Eight	SKY Sport 1	12.00pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Eight	SKY Sport 3	6.55pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Eight	SKY Sport 3	10.10pm
Sep 8	Evening Highlights – Day Eight	SKY Sport 1	5.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Nine	SKY Sport 2	8.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Nine	SKY Sport 3	4.30pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Nine	SKY Sport 3	7.30pm
	Evening Highlights – Day Nine	SKY Sport 3	10.10pm
Sep 9	Morning Highlights – Day Ten	SKY Sport 2	9.30am
	Evening Highlights – Day Ten	SKY Sport 2	9.00pm
Sep 10	Evening Highlights – Day Ten	SKY Sport 1	3.00am
	Morning Highlights – Day Eleven	SKY Sport 2	6.30am
	Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony	SKY Sport 2	7.30am
	Morning Highlights – Day Eleven	SKY Sport 1	11.00am
	Evening Highlights – Day Eleven	SKY Sport 1	7.30pm
	Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony	SKY Sport 1	8.30pm
Sep 11	Evening Highlights – Day Eleven	SKY Sport 1	3.30pm