New Zealand has won a hat-trick of gold medals today at the Rio Paralympics - two in the pool and one on the athletics track.
Swimmer Cameron Leslie started the goldrush with victory in the men's 150 metre individual medley race SM4, setting a world record in the process.
Leslie finished in a time of 2:23:12 minutes, breaking his own world record and beating the silver medal winner Zhipeng Jin from China by more than three seconds.
NZ para-swimmer Cameron Leslie. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Denmark's Jonas Larsen won Bronze.
Sophie Pascoe became New Zealand's most successful Paralympic athlete when she won the ninth gold medal of her career with success in the women's 100m butterfly S10.
Sophie Pascoe wins gold at Paralympics Photo: RNZ / YouTube
Pascoe set a Paralympic Record of 1:02.65 and just missed breaking her own World Record of 1:02.60, set earlier in 2016.
Pascoe has now matched New Zealand Paralympian legend Eve Rimmer's record of 14 Paralympic medals, however by taking gold today, Pascoe edged ahead of Rimmer in the standings, with a total of nine gold and five silver silver compared to Rimmer's eight gold, five silver and one bronze.
Sprinter Liam Malone won New Zealand's third gold of the day in the men's 200-metre sprint T44.
Liam Malone wins gold in the 200m T44 at the 2016 Paralympic Games. Photo: PhotoSport
He set a Paralympic record of 21.06 seconds, finishing six hundredths of a second ahead of second-placed Hunter Woodhall from the United States.
Malone's time bettered that of previous Paralympic Games record held by Oscar Pistorius.
Pistorius' record was 21.30sec.
Germany's David Behre won the bronze.
Nikita Howarth capped off the day with bronze in women's 50m Butterfly S7.
Howarth had qualified in a time of 35.40 to enter the final as the fastest, but could not replicate this.
New Zealand's now won 13 medals in total seven gold, three silver and three bronze medals and sits seventh on the medal table.
-RNZ
