Gold for Pascoe wins, Tesoriero grabs bronze

Christchurch swimmer Sophie Pascoe has won a gold medal at the Beijing Paralympics.

Pascoe, 15, easily won the women's 100m breastroke final with a personal best time of one minute 22.58 seconds, nearly 2sec ahead of Spaniard Sarai Gascon in 1min 24.51sec. Lousie Watkin of Great Britain was third.

It is the second medal for Pascoe after winning a silver in the 100m butterfly two days ago.

"I just wanted to stay in the first 50 and then come home and go for that gold medal," she said.

"The PB got me there. I'm really out of words to say."

Earlier today battered and bruised Wellingtonian Paula Tesoriero was rejoicing after winning a second track cycling medal at the Paralympics in Beijing today.

Tesoriero, 33 won bronze in the individual pursuit, beating Australian Jayne Paris in the race for third place by nearly 20 seconds on the closing day at the velodrome.

Her time of four minutes 26.080 seconds was slightly slower than her personal best to qualify but still way too quick for Paris.

She won a gold in the time trial two days earlier but crashed on her celebration lap.

"I'm really, really, rapt with that. Two medals at this level is just awesome," Tesoriero said.

"The pursuit is a really hard event. You've got to come out hard and qualify in the morning. Then come out and potentially harder in the afternoon."

She had found it difficult to eat because of pain in her jaw since the fall and was only cleared to race by a team medic overnight.

"My jaw is sore, my body is fairly bruised from the crash on Monday. So on a personal level to come out again and medal today is a confidence booster."

The visibly scarred Tesoriero was all grit and determination in her race today, starting well but fading a little during the middle stages before coming home strongly.

Her remaining race in Beijing is the road time trial.

New Zealand has now won five medals at the Games – two golds, two silver and one bronze.

- NZPA