Australia’s Lakeisha Patterson has brought home our first gold medal by winning gold at the Rio Paralympics in the S8 400m freestyle in world record time.
The 17-year-old from Caboolture in Queensland posted a time of 4.40.33 – 0.11 of a second faster than the previous world best held by the USA’s Jessica Long, who took second place.
A gracious victor, Patterson, who is nicknamed ‘Lucky’, said it felt a bit bitter sweet to take the record off the 2012 Paralympic champion and her idol.
“It was pretty surreal really. I knew I had to attack and go out hard and keep fighting for it, and I knew she was right behind me, so I just had to keep going forward,” said Lucky.
“Jess is an amazing and fierce competitor, and to be able to race alongside her and get past her was bitter sweet because she has been my idol growing up. So to race alongside her, and end up on top is quite amazing.”
“Jess said she was really proud of me and can’t believe how well I’ve done, and I really appreciated that, it was really nice. To hear those nice words from her really made me feel special.”
Fellow Aussie, Maddison Elliott finished fourth in the race with a time of 5.02.13.
Earlier, Sue Powell claimed Australia’s first medal of the Games by taking silver in individual pursuit cycling.
The 49-year-old, who won gold in London 2012, lost out to the reigning world champion Shawn Morelli from the United States.
