Sophie Pascoe Wins Third Gold - Daniel Sharp Wins Silver In The Pool As Well

Christchurch 15-year-old Sophie Pascoe has won her third gold and her fourth medal overall as she finished first equal in the 100m backstroke at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

Pascoe came home in a time of 1 minute. 10.57 seconds beating her world record time of 1 minute 11.26 seconds she set in the heats in the morning. Pascoe was equal with South Africa’s Shireen Sapiro coming down the home straight as they touched the wall together way ahead of the rest of the field.

“I just gave it my all and I’ve got nothing left. We both went out on the day wanting gold and we both got it. I wanted it bad,” said Pascoe who had never finished in a dead heat before.

Pascoe had already won gold medals from the 100m breaststroke and 200m IM medley and a silver in the 100m butterfly.

In the men’s 100m breaststroke Waitakere’s Daniel Sharp won a silver medal in a close race for second place. Sharp finished in 1 minute 08.73 seconds, behind the Ukranian, Oleksii Fedyna in 1 minute 04.63seconds but ahead of the third placed Belarus swimmer, Uladzimir Izotau who came home in 1 minute 08.90 seconds.

New Zealand now has a total of 11 medals – four golds, three silver and four bronze.