Pascoe still queen of the pool

New Zealand’s queen of swimming, Sophie Pascoe, confirmed her status at the Commonwealth Games pool this evening when she blitzed the field to win the women’s SM 10 200m individual medley.

The 25-year-old, who seems to pick up gold medals as easily as other people pick up shells at the beach, has now added a third Commonwealth Games gold medal to her nine Paralympics golds. To paraphrase a well-known movie line: “She’s going to need a bigger mantelpiece.”

Pascoe dominated the final, winning in 2min 27.72s, which gave her a four-second advantage over second-placed Aurelie Rivard of Canada. Katherine Downie of Australia was third.

Wellingtonian Lewis Clareburt was unable to make an impression in the men’s 200m butterfly final, though his time of 1min 58.51s was far quicker than anything he managed before he got to the Gold Coast.

After his bronze medal heroics yesterday, there were some excessive expectations of the 18-year-old, who did well to place seventh. The butterfly was won by South African speedster Chad le Clos in 1min 54.00s.

“To be in the final against these world class swimmers is really special,” Clareburt said. “Chad le Clos went out really fast and maybe that distracted me a bit, but I’m happy with another solid swim.”

Clareburt said that over the past 24 hours his social media had “gone crazy”.

“I’ve had to turn off my notifications just to get some sleep.”

Helena Gasson finished 11th in the women’s 50m butterfly after swimming 27.19s in her semi-final.

In the men’s 100m freestyle, Daniel Hunter improved on his qualifying time by half a second with an effort of 49.11s, which was good enough to get him into the final in eighth place.

Matthew Stanley swam 49.61s for 11^th and Sam Perry’s 49.77s placed him 14^th.

New Zealanders just missed out on the medals in the men’s SB8 100m breaststroke final. Jesse Reynolds swam 1.21.65s, a personal best, for fourth and Celyn Edwards recorded 1min 25.63s for sixth.