15 July 2011

City of Leeds swim­ming star Claire Cash­more is on the crest of a wave after claim­ing five medals and help­ing break two records at the recent IPC Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Berlin.

The 23-year-old Great Britain inter­na­tion­al enjoyed a stun­ning week of suc­cess in Ger­many, win­ning two gold medals, a sil­ver and two bronze, as well as set­ting an indi­vid­ual British record and break­ing world and Euro­pean records in the med­ley team relay events.

The Kid­der­min­ster swim­mer’s per­son­al achieve­ments were fur­ther boost­ed, when dur­ing the event, she dis­cov­ered she had secured a 2:1 in her Lin­guis­tics and Pho­net­ics degree at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leeds.

While com­plet­ing her degree Claire has lived in Leeds for the last three years, train­ing as part of the City of Leeds squad at the Aquat­ics Cen­tre at the John Charles Cen­tre for Sport.

Her first medal in Berlin came from being part of the freestyle relay team which set a new Euro­pean record in win­ning gold. A sil­ver medal and British record fol­lowed in the indi­vid­ual 100m breast­stroke events, before claim­ing bronze in both the 100m but­ter­fly and 200m indi­vid­ual medley.

Her week of suc­cess con­clud­ed in style with a gold medal and new world record in the relay med­ley event, before things got even bet­ter when Claire dis­cov­ered her degree result.

City of Leeds swim­mer Claire Cash­more said:

I’m real­ly hap­py with my swims at the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships and it shows I am in great shape a year before Lon­don 2012. Find­ing out about my degree result too means it has been a very good few weeks for me.

This year has been real­ly tough try­ing to jug­gle third year of uni­ver­si­ty and swim­ming so to have the medals in my pock­et is a great feel­ing. The Euro­peans were a step­ping stone for the Par­a­lympics so it is very excit­ing and a bit scary to think the next major event will be at Lon­don 2012!

Next year being the Par­a­lympic Games I want to do every­thing pos­si­ble to ensure I that I am in the best shape of my life.

The City of Leeds Swim­ming Club is sup­port­ed by Leeds City Coun­cil’s Swim­ming Train­ing Scheme, and Senior Age Group Coach Richard Deni­gan said:

Major con­grat­u­la­tions to Claire for her tremen­dous suc­cess in Berlin. Togeth­er with her degree result it was a great week so all cred­it to her for being so focused and ded­i­cat­ed in doing her best in both aspects of her life.

Togeth­er with the sup­port of all the coach­ing staff, her com­mit­ment to con­tin­u­al­ly improv­ing is fan­tas­tic and with the Lon­don 2012 Par­a­lympics now only a year away it is real­ly excit­ing for her and the team.