Swimmers impress the crowds in Sheffield

This weekend welcomed 350 swimmers from 24 different countries at the Disability Sport England Open Swimming Championships in Ponds Forge in Sheffield, supported by Sheffield City Trust. Sixteen World and nine European records were broken in a fabulous weekend of swimming- showing the world that British disability swimming is ready for top competition in Athens Paralympics in 2004.

Amongst the disabled swimmers, Malcolm Green (Modernians) came away with 6 World records in the new class S15 (hearing impaired). He also claimed the Outstanding Performance trophy for his continuous success throughout the 3-day event.

Established swimmer Danielle Watts from Oxford broke 3 World records in her S1 class. She took the Outstanding Performance for the women. Another British swimmer to note was Anthony Stephens, who broke a record in his chosen discipline.

Newcomers to the Long Course- France- were totally impressed with the coordination of the second next best event to the Paralympics. They were given the National Performance Cup for positive attitudes and good behaviour over the event.

Amongst other countries attending were Israel, Austria, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Ukraine and Czech Republic.

Disability Sport England works hard all year round to organise the best sports events for disabled people in this country. The Long Course has been running in Sheffield for 10 years and we were fortunate to receive a grant from Sheffield City Trust for a superb venue- Ponds Forge. We are a charity; so appreciate any corporate support for events, which are fast becoming the biggest multi-disability events in the world.

Full Results available from DSE HQ 020 8801 4466