Australia has won six gold medals on the opening day of competition at the inaugural Para Pan Pacific Championships in Edmonton today, with the AIS based Ellie Cole taking out dual gold in the S9 50 and 400m freestyle.

Cole won Australia’s second gold medal of the afternoon in Canada cruising into the wall in 4:43.50 in the S9 400m free and then backed up in the final event to win the 50m free in 30.72.  After a string of bronze medals in Delhi and the Netherlands last year, the 19-year-old said gold was a very nice substitute for bronze.

'I really wanted to medal in all my events at this meet and gold is certainly a good start,' said Cole.

'I was hoping to go a little bit faster tonight, but it’s a bit unusual to have the 400m free at the start of the program so this is a good sign for me for the rest of the meet.'

Not to be outdone winning gold in the 400m free, Cole’s training partner at the AIS Teigan Van Roosmalen won the S13 final in 5:02.64 for her first major international gold medal.

'It’s a good to start the meet like this because my main event is on Sunday,' said Van Roosmalen.

'My Coach Graeme Carroll said just to have a go at this event, so it’s good to start well.'

Melbourne primary school teacher Tanya Huebner took bronze in the S6 400m freestyle while in the S8 400m free, Jacqui Freney from Brisbane won silver in a time of 5:04.92 from the USA’s Jessica Long who stormed home in 4:44.91.

Queenslander Kayla Clarke won Australia’s first gold medal of the meet taking out the women’s S14 200m freestyle in 2:21.19. Clarke led from the gun to win by five body lengths with Kirstie Kasko from Canada second and Garcia Resendiz from Mexico taking bronze.

Opening the gold medal account for the Aussie men, Matt Levy was too strong in the S7 50m butterfly winning by half a body length in a time of 32.41 while Jay Dohnt was fifth in 36.05.

'That’s a season’s best time for me and gives me plenty of confidence for the rest of the meet, which is really a stepping stone for me for London next year,' said Levy.

The youngest member of the Aussie team, 16-year-old Regan Wickens took a further second off his personal best time to take silver in the S6 50m fly in 39.16.

The golden run continued for the Aussies with decorated Paralympian Matt Cowdrey taking out the S9 100m fly in 1:00.55, just outside his personal best in the event with Brenden Hall winning silver in 1:02.57.

In the men’s S10 100m fly, Andrew Pasterfield finished in the bronze medal position in a time of 59.29 with Australia’s flag bearer from the opening Jeremy Tidy fifth in 1:01.02.

The women’s S3 50m freestyle saw Ester Overton finish 5th in 1:15.78 while Sarah Hilt swam another personal best time to finish fourth in the S5 50m free in 51.50. 

Tanya Huebner picked up her second medal of the day taking silver in the S6 50m free in 39.38, while in the S8 50m free Jacqui Freney also found herself on the podium again with another silver medal in 32.66.  In the S9 50m free Madeleine Scott and Nicole Latham finished fourth and fifth respectively.

In the final event of the night the women’s S13 50m free, Prue Watt from Nunawading in Victoria took bronze in a time of 28.25 with Teigan Van Roosmalen fourth in 29.94.

At the end of the first day of competition Australia finished with six gold medals, four silver and three bronze with tomorrow morning’s heats starting at 9.30am local time.