Thirteen may be unlucky for some but for the Australian Dolphins as they took home 13 gold medals on the opening night of the Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Cairns.
Youngsters Paige Leonhardt and Keira Stephens showed they are ones to watch in the future with Leonhardt taking out the gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB8, ahead of Stephens and teammate Madeleine Scott.
It was Lakeisha 'Lucky' Patterson who won the first gold of the night after swimming a personal best time of 4.39.23 in the Women’s S8 400m freestyle while Ellie Cole also took home gold in the S9 400m freestyle.
Australia’s first two GOLD MEDALISTS at the #ParaPanPacs2018 - it’s @EllieVCole and Lakeisha Patterson for the 400m freestyle S9 and S8 respectively. GO AUS! #WeBelieve @DolphinsAUS pic.twitter.com/GQ31g1w7my
— AUS Paralympic Team (@AUSParalympics) August 9, 2018
It was also a night where world records fell as Canadian Aurelie Rivard broke her own record in the 400m S10 Freestyle, which she set back at the Rio Paralympics, in a time of 4.29.87.
She hit the wall ahead of Australian Monique Murphy and 13-year-old Jasmine Greenwood.
While in the S13 classification, Katja Dedekind won silver in a time of 4.49.10 with American Rebecca Meyers breaking her own world record to take gold.
Tiffany Thomas-Kane celebrated her 17th birthday with silver and a PB in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB7 and rookie Jaime-Lee Getson also took silver in the SB14 100m breaststroke.
Related Articles
Australian Chloë McCardel is now Queen of the English Channel
Australia Winter Olympics gold-medal drought ended by Jakara Anthony
