Duo fly the flag at Paralympic WC

Andrew Brook • Published 26 May 2009 14:34 0 Comments

Paralympic Sport

READING swimmer Graham Edmunds has got his heart set on a European Championships medal, after an impressive showing at the BT Paralympic World Cup this weekend.

The 34-year-old, who was a member of the victorious Great Britain 4x100m freestyle relay team at the Beijing Paralympics, competed in the International Open on Saturday finishing fifth in the 50m freestyle and eighth in the 100m freestyle at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Edmunds arrived in Manchester in excellent form, having picked up 100m backstroke bronze at the British International Disability Swimming Championships in Sheffield last weekend.

That performance essentially booked the Swansea-based star"s place on the plane to October"s European Championships in Iceland, and Edmunds is convinced he will be among the medals once again.

'Last weekend in Sheffield really blew me away,' he said. 'It"s been really nice this weekend because I haven"t done anywhere near as many events and there"s no pressure on me.

'I"ve been lucky enough to get on the team for Reykjavik for the Europeans. I"ll be racing many of the guys who were in Manchester, so that"ll be quite good fun.

'My aim for that is medals, always medals. I want to get my own medal at any event. I would have thought the 50m would be my best shout with that, although I"m not far off in the 400m.

'And the next big one is the World Short Championship Trials which are in five weeks time in Newport - that"s just the qualifying for us.'

Meanwhile, Reading-born wheelchair basketball ace Louise Sugden suffered heartache in Manchester as Great Britain missed out on a spot on the podium.

The 24-year-old from Newbury was helpless to prevent China claiming the bronze medal courtesy of a 63-50 victory on Saturday.

It completed a tough four days for Garry Peel"s troops - who finished eighth at the Paralympics in Beijing last year - as they suffered three narrow defeats in the round robin stages before losing 54-34 to the Netherlands in the semi-final.

But with five rookies making their debuts for Great Britain, Sugden, pictured right, who scored 11 points in the third-place play-off, insists the future is still looking bright.

'We"ve got a lot of new players in the squad and to be playing so close to the teams that were playing in Beijing is absolutely brilliant from our point of view,' she said.

'It"s a learning curve for them as much as it is a learning curve for us as well.'

The BT Paralympic World Cup took place in Manchester with more than 400 competitors from 31 countries competing over six days.

Go to www.btparalympicworldcup.com for more information.

Tweet

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

If you are registered with us, you can login here. If you are not registered, do so now.
Once logged in you wont have to complete word verification each time you post.

Prefer not to register?

Screen Name *required

Email (not displayed) *required

Usernames must be 4 - 20 characters. Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users can also take part in competitions and other features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.

Follow @rdgchronicle