Australia won another 13 medals today at the Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Cairns ©Swimming Australia

Australia have won another 13 medals including six golds, on Day four of the Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Cairns today.

It means overall for the meet, the hosts now have 31 gold medals in total and comfortably sit atop the medals table.

Katja Dedekind won one of the six golds with a new personal best of 1min 10.11secs in the 100 metres backstroke, just a few days shy of her 17th birthday.

“I did a really good time this morning [in the heats] and I was really determined to go under that 1.11 again,” she said.

“It’s the first time I’ve done that the whole year and it’s great to do that in front of a home crowd and my family.

“I did a 1.10 last year for the Worlds trials and I haven’t done a good time since then, so I’m really happy to do something two seconds under my Rio time.

“Doing that time today, and after the way I’m feeling after a few days of racing, means it’s really looking good for Tokyo.”

Her training partner, the multiple Paralympic champion Ellie Cole, claimed another of today’s gold in the S9 100m backstroke.

She finished in 1:10.73, but said afterwards that she will need to go faster if she wants to medal at Tokyo 2020.

“Backstroke is an event that I’ve been working on for a long time and I’ve kind of strayed away from my PB over the last year or two,” she said.

“And that’s probably one of the better results I’ve had in a while.

“I really want to do 1.07 for Tokyo, that’s what’s going to put me in a gold medal position.

“The time I did probably won’t get me a medal to be honest.”

On the men’s side, the 34-point relay team, who finished fifth at the Rio Paralympics, took gold today in a time of 3.50.45.

Matthew Levy, Timothy Disken, Ben Popham and Rowan Crothers touched the wall nearly a second a half faster than they managed in Rio.

Lakeisha Patterson won Australia’s first gold of the day and her second gold of the championships in the S8 100m backstroke, in a time of 1.18.92.

Taylor Corry won gold in the S14 100m backstroke, while her Australian teammate Jaime-Lee Getson wion the silver.

Another swimmer to win their second gold of the championships was Timothy Hodge, who backed up his win in the 200m individual medley last night with gold in the S9 100m backstroke.

He led from start to finish, winning ni 1:03.68.

Australia’s last gold today came from the visually impaired swimmer Jeremy McClure, who won the S11 100m backstroke in 1:12.92.