Strong start for district’s Claire (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Strong start for district’s Claire

1:00pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in Sportsview

CLAIRE Cashmore made a solid start to her preparations for the IPC World Swimming Championships as she kicked off the cobwebs at the British Gas International meeting in Leeds.

The 24-year-old was racing in her first competitive tournament since her Paralympic medal treble in London last year and produced an encouraging display in the 100 metre breaststroke.

She set one minute and 23.28 seconds, which was under the qualifying time but does not count for the tournament, which will be held in Montreal this summer.

But Cashmore, whose left arm is missing below the elbow, knows she has areas to work on after setting disappointing times in the 200m individual medley (2.45.11) and 100m butterfly (1.14.66).

However, she was in good spirits as she continues her training ahead of the World trials at the British Disability Championships in Sheffield at the end of April.

She said: “At this stage of the season it’s hard to tell where you are compared to everyone else because we’re all at different stages of training.

“I think I need to work on my 200m individual medley but there’s time to improve ahead of the trials in April.”

Cashmore has also based herself at National High Performance Centre in Manchester after doing some training with Wyre Forest Swimming Club.

She admitted it was a difficult decision to re-locate.

“I really enjoyed training with Wyre Forest but I did not get enough time in the pool so I had to move to Manchester,” Cashmore added. “The facilities at the national high performance centre are amazing, they have two 50m pools.”

Meanwhile, Amy Smith was also in action at the International Meet, which has replaced the British Championships after they were moved to June.

She came fourth in the 50m butterfly (27.16), sixth in the 50m freestyle (25.67) and just missed out on the final of the 100m butterfly.

Smith was part of a quartet from Loughborough, which includes Liam Tancock, Fran Halsall and Grant Turner, who raced in the Mediterranean International Open Meet in Marseille last week.

She won bronzes in the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly and also finished fourth for the 100m freestyle.