Fran O'Connor at the British International Swimming Championships

Held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on 26th & 27th April 2008

Fran O’Connor (17) swam in the British International Swimming Championships in Ponds Forge, Sheffield on April 26^th and 27^th. This is the third most important competition for Disabled swimmers after the Paralympics and World Championships. The best swimmers from Europe were joined by swimmers from Israel, Brazil and New Zealand. The Championships were also the final trial for the British Paralympic team.

Fran swam in the 50 metres Freestyle on the Saturday. She broke her own British record in the morning heat in a time of 36.71, which earned her a silver medal in the S7 category behind the German World Champion and World record holder. In the evening session she swam in the multi disability B final where she improved on her morning time, clocking 36.06 which ranked her 7^th in the World Classification but which missed the Paralympic qualifying time by just 0.2 seconds. Speaking after her race, Fran said “I have mixed feelings about the result really as I got a record and a PB but still missed the important time”. Explaining the tough selection criteria for the British team, National Performance Director, Tim Reddish, said “We have a restriction on he number of athletes we take, because our objective is to put athletes on the Paralympic podium, not to make finals, which is the target of some other countries.

Fran swam in the 100 metres Freestyle on the Sunday. In the morning heat she once more broke her own British record in a time of 1:20.62, which knocked two seconds off her previous mark. Again, she won the silver medal behind her German rival. In the A final she improved further on this time by another second to record 1:19.62. This also places her seventh in the World ranking but was outside the Beijing qualifying time.

Speaking after the Championships, Wyre Forest Swimming Club’s Director of Coaching said “Fran is not just an outstanding swimmer but an outstanding young lady as well and I feel proud to be associated with her. I would like to thank John Thorley and the other coaches for their input into Fran’s development over the past twelve months”.

Claire Cashmore, a Wyre Forest Swimming Club member, representing Kelly College had already qualified for Beijing. At these Championships she showed a welcome return to her best form in setting a new British record in the 100 metres Breaststroke final and winning the Gold medal in her classification.