Brazilian swimmer Dias wins gold at Paralympic test event

Brazilian para-athlete Daniel Dias stepped up his preparations for this year's Paralympic Games by winning the 50-metre S5 freestyle final on the last day of the Rio 2016 swimming test event.

Dias finished in 33.29 seconds, ahead of Spain's Sebastian Rodriguez (35.42 seconds) and Roy Perkins of the US (35.64 seconds) here on Sunday, reports Xinhua.

Despite his victory, the 27-year-old said he was looking to improve ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games from September 7-18.

"I'm satistfied with how I went even though I wanted to swim a little better in all of the races I competed in," the winner of 10 Paralympic gold medals told Globoespore on Sunday.

"Let's see if I can improve at upcoming events in Europe. It's going to be great to compete here in September because Brazilian fans are different, and they give you great energy."

Other Brazilian gold medallists on Sunday were Andre Brasil in the 50m freestyle S10 and Felipe Souza in the 100m breastroke SB9.

Brazil's head swimming coach Leonard Tomasello said the hosts were guaranteed 32 swimming berths at the Rio Paralympics.

--IANS

sam/vt