Paralympic World Cup Swimming

On Saturday, my family and I travelled up to Manchester to watch the Paralympic World Cup Swimming at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.
In the past, I have watched a variety of different sports live. Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, F.A Cup final etc but have never watched live Paralympic sport.
The Paralympic World Cup is spread across three different sports - wheelchair basketball, athletics and swimming. The event is a team event between Great Britain, Europe, The Americas and The rest of the world. Saturday was the final day of the competition and GB were in third position.. A win in the swimming event would mean overall victory though.
The aquatics centre was easy to find and we soon found ourselves lining up to go in. Everybody was extremely helpful and friendly and we were soon sat down watching the warm up. Within a minute of sitting down, Hannah was given a t-shirt, badge and inflatable sticks that are beaten together to make noise - lots of noise! As Mrs Britten will tell you, I like nothing better than free stuff! We had definitely come to the right place!.

First highlight, of many, came when Ellie Simmonds climbed out of the pool right in front of us. Many of you will remember Ellie from Beijing when she won gold medals aged 13 and melted our hearts when she cried during an interview. Ellie waved enthusiastically at us and we waved back . It wasn’t until she had gone that we realised her mum was sat behind us - epic fail. Still, I got a photo(see photo).
Our next spot was Liz Johnson. Liz is a Paralympic gold medallist and is probably the pin-up girl of the squad. Looking tanned from a training camp she swam effortlessly past us. Hannah’s favourite stroke is breaststroke and having watched Liz on Inside Incredible Athletes on channel 4, she was looking forward to watching her swim. Liz Johnson has cerebral palsy which affects the right side of her body, although it didn’t seem to affect her breaststroke which looked textbook to us.

Breaststroke race

The event started with the women’s 100m backstroke which GB swimmer Stephanie Millward won by nearly a second. By this stage, there was barely an empty seat in the place and the free noise making sticks were being banged enthusiastically by all. Next race was the men’s 200m freestyle which saw a GB 1,2 with Daniel Pepper and Ben Procter the first two swimmers home. Hugh Porter, who you may know as the BBC’s cycling commentator, was calling the races and also acting as the GB’s chief cheerleader. He made it easy to follow the action and definitely kept the crowd lively
The third race was the Women’s 100m breaststroke. Another GB 1,2, although we were a little disappointed as ,our new favourite swimmer Liz Johnson, finished second behind Charlotte Henshaw. Three race and three wins for the GB team - what a start!
Unfortunately, Yevheniy Bohodayko had not read the script and won the fourth race in a blistering time. Matthew Whorwood of GB finished second and looked well pleased with his performance, unlike two of the others in the race who were disqualified by the judges.
There was a local interest in the next race. Just like Oliver B and Elise, Sam Hynd swims for Nova and is a Paralympic Gold Medallist. The Men’s 400m was the longest race of the day but Sam make it look easy with a powerful swim which was nearly 30 seconds faster than anyone else in the race. Another win for GB and normal service was resumed.
It got a bit embarrassing in the next race when GB swimmers finished 1,2,3 in the Women’s 50m Freestyle. Did we mind? Not one bit! Louise Watkin, Stephanie Millward and Claire Cashmore finished in a blanket finish only separated by 0.34seconds.
According to the programme, Johnathon Fox was due to defend his 100m backstroke title. He is also the world record holder. Unfortunately, Johnathon was injured and GB didn’t have a swimmer in the event. The event was won by Nan Gao. However, of more interest to us was the man in third place - Daisuke Ejima of Japan. Earlier in the day we sorted some noise makers for a Japanese man and his daughter who were sitting in front of us. They turned out to be the father and sister of the third placed swimmer and we all celebrated with them. Daisuke’s father reminded me of many swimming Dad’s we see at Hannah’s swimming galas. As soon as Daisuke Ejima finished, the note book was swiftly pulled out of his bag and the time and splits were dutifully noted.
Ellie Simmond’s was up next. The crowd had been waiting for this race and the noise level went up a notch. 200m Individual Medley starts with the butterfly and then back crawl. At the half way point, Ellie was trailing in about fourth place. I turned to see how her mum was coping with this but she looked remarkably relaxed. After the breaststroke length, we understood why. Ellie had powered herself into second place and turned for home with just freestyle left to swim. What followed was awesome, Ellie pushed strongly off the wall and left the field for dead. She finished in a time of 3.09.36 which was just outside her own world record. Ellie is a Paralympic superstar. If, or when, she wins in London 2012 she will surely be a national hero.

Sophie Pascoe of New Zealand, won the next race. We found out later that her swimming club had their pool destroyed by an earthquake earlier this year and had found training difficult.
Thomas Young won the 100m Backstroke for GB and we were now looking like we could win the World Cup. Another GB swimmer, Sean Fraser, finished second and the crowd was again rapturous.
Heather Frederiksen of GB was second in the penultimate event, women’s 50m, and we were sure we had done enough to secure the World Cup. A win in the last event would surely seal the deal and we quickly scanned the programme to see who was swimming for us. Matthew Walker MBE is a Paralympics legend. Eleven Paralympic medals since first swimming for GB in Sydney. Matthew is also the 50m World champion. With a cv like that, surely he couldn’t lose? We were right - he couldn’t! As soon as he hit the water, the result was never in doubt! He eased to the finish to win comfortably and the World Cup was ours!
While waiting for the presentation of the trophy, another treat was to come our way. Daisuke Ejima had received his bronze medal and had come to show his family. My Japanese is a bit rusty but I’m sure his Dad said something about his new fan club sitting behind him. Next thing we knew, Hannah was having her photo taken by Daisuke’s sister with her medal winning brother! How many people can say they have had their photo taken with a World Cup Medal Winner still wet from his swim!

Hannah having her photo taken by Daisuke Ejima's family

All that was left was the World Cup which was presented under a arch of balloons to a very happy GB team.
Overall thoughts of the dayThis was our very first Paralympic World Cup but it will not be our last. The swimming was excellent and very exciting. GB winning obviously made it special but it was the individuals that stood out for us. Matthew Walker, Sam Hynd and Ellie Simmonds were superb.
Favourite parts of the dayThe crowd - a real mix of people having a great time and making a lot of noise. It was a shame that Channel 4 didn’t show more of the crowd during their coverage on Saturday afternoon.
The volunteers - very helpful and friendly.
The Free Stuff - Did I mention I now have a Oscar Pistorius autographed T-Shirt that was thrown into the crowd! Not to mention the lanyards we were given as we left the aquatics centre.
The swimmers - Very impressed with the focus and determination of the swimmers. Whether they were working out a few tweaks with their coaches during warm-up or limbering up before a race, they were totally focussed on their own performance. There was also a great amount of warmth towards each other and a total respect for the officials.

Matthew Walker listening to his coach

A great value day out. We are now planning our 2012 Paralympics ticket application ready for 9^th September when the tickets go on sale.