New Zealand swimmer Sophie Pascoe was left utterly exhausted after winning another gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics last night.
Pascoe vomited, blacked out and needed oxygen, after winning the 200m individual medley for the fourth time at a Paralympic Games, swimming as S10 at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, but reclassified as S9 for Tokyo.
She led the race from start to finish, but had to fight in the final leg, as she was chased down by Hungary's Zsofia Konkoly, with Pascoe edging the silver medallist by just 0.27s.
Pascoe finished in a time of 2m 32.73s just ahead of Konkoly and Spain's Nuria Marques Soto.
Pascoe's latest gold was her 19th Paralympic medal in total and fourth of these Games.
"I did really leave it all out there and even left some on the side of the pool, but that is what a fight is all about and I really wanted it," she says. "I wanted to make it a fourpeat.
"It just came down to that last 10 metres not breathing. That comes down to the skills that Roly [Crichton] and I have been working on for many years doing this race.
Pascoe says this was her last race in the event which has brought her so much success.
"I can say you have just witnessed my last ever 200 IM. I will be cutting the events down now, so it is nice to finish on a positive and with a gold.
"The mentality in that race was just to fight and dig deep. It came down to experience and that is what got me this gold medal.
"To come away with the fourpeat, I'm proud of myself.
"I'm so lucky to have Matt [Ingram] and Megan [Munro] on the side of the pool to get me medical attention. The fact the IPC moved the medal ceremony just shows how much respect they have for the athletes."
New Zealand's most decorated Paralympian won her first gold medal at Tokyo on Tuesday in the S9 100m freestyle, after already claiming silver in the 100m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m backstroke.
The Cantabrian will wrap her fourth Paralympics on Thursday, when she competes in the 100m butterfly.
Kiwis in action at Tokyo (NZ times) are:
Thursday, September 2
SWIMMING
12:36pm Men’s 100m butterfly heats - Jesse Reynolds (S9)
12:46pm Women’s 100m butterfly heats - Sophie Pasce (S9)
8:22pm Men’s 100m butterfly final - Jesse Reynolds (S9)
8:28pm Women’s 100m butterfly final - Sophie Pasce (S9)
CYCLING
12:30pm Women’s road race - Anna Taylor (C4)
12:30pm Women’s road race - Nicole Murray (C5)
4pm Men’s road race - Stephen Hills (T2)
4:05pm Women’s road race - Eltje Malzbender (T1)
CANOE
12:50pm Men’s kayak single heats - Scott Martlew (KL2)
12:30pm Men’s kayak single heats - Scott Martlew (VL3)
2:30pm Men’s Va'a single heats - Corbin Hart (KL3)
ATHLETICS
12:01am (Sept 3) Women’s 100m heats - Anna Steven (T64)
