Records continue to tumble for New Zealand Para swimmers on day two in Berlin

The New Zealand Para Swimming Team continued to show great form on the second day of the IDM Berlin Open in Germany. The team added another three national records and five personal best times to a growing list of achievements for the team of five Para swimmers.

A relative unknown on the international scene until yesterday 16-year-old Celyn Edwards from Christchurch set two national records in the Men’s 100m Freestyle S8 and Men’s 50m Backstroke S8 in times of 1:06.71 and 36.60 respectively.

Team mate Chris Arbuthnott from Palmerston North broke the national record in the both the heat and final races of the Men’s 50m Backstroke S9 in a time of 30.99. He was only 0.36 seconds behind Brazilian Andrey Garbe who won gold with a time of 30.63. Arbuthnott was pushed all the way by Rio 2016 Paralympian Jesse Reynolds (Hamilton) who swam a personal best time in this event of 31.25.

Another highlight for the team was the performance of Rio 2016 Paralympic Games debutant Tupou Neiufi who swam a blistering Women’s 50m Backstroke S9 final where Nuria Soto Marques (Spain) set a new world record of 33.2 with Neiufi only 2 seconds behind.

Simon Mayne (Para Swimming Performance Coach, Paralympics New Zealand) said, “The team have continued the success on day two of the final event of the World Para Swimming Series in Berlin. It was great to see both Chris and Jesse producing personal best times in the pool today. Chris is particularly thrilled with setting a national record and taking just under one second off his previous personal best time.“

Ben Close (Para swimming coach to Celyn Edwards) said, “Celyn has really flourished in this highly competitive environment. With three national records so far I’m really looking forward to seeing what performances he can produce over the final two days of the meet. “

The New Zealand Para Swimming Team have now set five national records and achieved a Commonwealth Games minimum qualifying standard. All five Para swimmers will be in action again tomorrow in Berlin.

·         Live streaming of the Berlin World Series will be made available on World Para Swimming’s website

·         Each race is run in mixed classification format. Para swimmers with different classifications will compete in the same race with the winner of each race calculated by comparison to the world record. The time that is within the closest percentage of the World Record time in that Para swimmer’s class wins.

·         The IDM Berlin Open is the final event that makes up the World Para Swimming Event Series. IPC Swimming World Championships will attract more than 600 Para swimmers from 52 nations

·         The event is taking place on 6 – 9 July 2017 (CEST) in Berlin, Germany.