CLAIRE Cashmore’s thirst for medals has not been quenched despite winning silver and bronze at the London Paralympic Games, believes her dad.
The Kidderminster swimmer has been one of stars of the show for Paralympics GB, winning silver in the SB8 100m breaststroke and bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
But Cashmore, whose left arm is removed below the elbow, is still on a quest to win her first Paralympic gold and could further add to her haul of five medals from three tournaments.
She races in the S9 200m individual medley today, and tomorrow will be part of a home quartet competing in the 4x100m medley relay.
The 24-year-old set out her desire to win her first Paralympic gold before the tournament and father Duncan says she is still determined to do so.
“Claire still has a burning desire to win a gold medal in an individual race and could certainly do something in the 200m individual medley and medley relay,” he commented.
“She’s in fantastic form and I would not be surprised if there was more medals to come.
“There’s no pressure on her now she’s done her main race, she can go out and just blast it.”
No matter the result of the next two events, there’s no doubt Cashmore is having her best ever Games.
She won her first ever silver medal on Saturday in a high quality 100m breaststroke final.
After qualifying fastest, the world silver medallist was just 0.02 seconds shy of her British record as she clocked a season’s best one minute and 20.39 seconds to touch second behind Russia’s defending champion Olesya Vladykina, who broke the world record with 1:17.17.
Afterwards she said: “I’m probably in the best shape I've ever been. “I’ve done such hard training this year. It didn’t quite pay off to how I expected but to come away with a silver medal is better than Beijing and Athens so I’ve got to be happy with it.”
Things got even better on Monday evening, when Cashmore was in blistering form as the GB quartet took bronze. She produced a brilliant second leg to give the home quartet a slender lead.
But the Australians powered into a commanding position as S10 swimmer Katherine Downie gave them an insurmountable advantage. Despite the efforts of third leg swimmer Susannah Rodgers, GB were out of the running for gold but were second ahead of the USA.
However, USA’s Anna Eames produced a final flourish as Louise Watkin was pipped into third. The British quartet set a new European record of 4:27.71.
It’s been a tough Games for Stourport-raised Matt Dimbylow and the seven-a-side football team. They lost their first two Pool B matches 3-0 to Brazil and 7-1 to Ukraine but bounced back to beat the USA 4-0.
Redditch’s Katrina Hart, who played for Kidderminster Harriers ’ Centre of Excellence, won bronze in the T35/T38 4x100m relay on Tuesday night.
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