RBS Swimming & Triathlon Coaching - Blog

Louise Watkin in action at the start of the 100m Freestyle (S9)

Kelly College swimmer 16-year-old Louise Watkin wins a Silver medal at the Paralympic Games in the 100m Freestyle in the S9 category. Louise produced a life time best performance by nearly two seconds to finish in a time of 1.03.85 seconds to clinch the silver medal from Stephanie Dixon of Canada by a close four hundredths of a second. Louise’s coach Robin Brew said that; “Louise had a fantastic race, perfectly paced allowing her to finish strong in this demanding sprint event - we have been working hard to develop Louises back end speed and it has paid off, we are all very proud of her”. The Gold medal was won by disability swimming phenomenon Natalie Du Toit, who had remained in Beijing following her debut at the Olympic Games, becoming the first ever disability competitor  to compete alongside able-bodied swimmers in the 5km Open Water event. Louise, who is a lower arm amputee will be swimming next in the SB9 100m Breaststroke on Day 3.

The Paralympic Final - 100m (S9) Freestyle Results - Day 2

Gold - Natalie Du Toit - 1.01.44

Silver - Louise Watkin - 1.03.85

Bronze - Stephanie Dixon - 1.03.89

Robin Brew, Claire Cashmore, Louise Watkin and Lauren Steadman arrive at Beijing Airport with the GB Paralympic Team five days before the start of the Paralympic Games begin.

Claire will be competing in the 100m Fly (S9), 100m Breaststroke (SB8), 200m Individual Medley (SM9) and 100m Backstroke (S9). Louise begins with the 100m Free (S9), followed by the 100m Breaststroke (S9), 200m Individual medley (SM9), 400m Free (S9) and the 50m Free (S9). Lauren will be competing in the 100m and the 50m Free (S9).

The GB team flew into Beijing following a ten day holding camp in Macau (near Hong Kong), where their final preparations were put into place. The Paralympics Swimming competition begin on Sunday 7th September and ends on Monday 16th September. The 9 day swimming programme is one of the longest and toughest swimming event schedules in the world. We wish all our Paralympic swimmers and coaches all the very best. Go for it…..

Claire with two 'Silver Medals' from the 2006 IPC World Championships in Durban

My name is Claire Cashmore from Kelly College and I am swimmer off to Beijing to compete in my second Paralympic Games for Great Britain. I competed in Athens at the age of 16 and was fortunate enough to win two unexpected bronze medals in the 100 backstroke and 200 Individual Medley. This made me realise that all those early morning starts had paid off.

I was born without my left forearm and have consequently learnt how to adapt to life without it. If anything, it has made me more determined to prove to others that there is very little that I can’t do.

My classification is S9 in all strokes apart from breaststroke where I am SB8.

Before Athens I lived in Kidderminster and trained at Wyre Forest Swimming club, Steve Joyce and all the other coaches were responsible for my preparation and all did a great job, thank you again to all. Post Athens I decided to move to Kelly College a specialist sports school in Devon for my A levels, which helped balance my academic and swimming lives. I have been lucky enough to work with Robin Brew for four years which is a whole Paralympic cycle. Robin was selected as a coach to join us in Beijing which for me personally is really important as he understands me as an individual.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their support and I will keep you posted on my progress out in Beijing. We leave on Saturday 23rd August.

- can’t wait!

Birmingham was the launch-pad for Britain’s Paralympic Games campaign as the city played host to the complete Paralympics GB team on Saturday 26th July, just weeks before the team departs for Beijing.

Amongst the entire team was KELLY Swimmers Claire Cashmore, Louise Watkin, Lauren Steadman and coach Robin Brew who will all be departing for China on the 23rd August. The Team was paraded from Broad Street to the NIA, via Brindleyplace where they were met by a Chinese lion and a band of drummers. The team then continued on to the NIA to attend a team-building gala dinner.

For an inspiring glimps at our Paralympic heroes in action take a look at the following 30sec link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwGq9JyH-zo

Lauren Steadman, Robin Brew, Louise Watkin