DAVID Hill and Claire Cashmore of Kelly College joined the British Team to compete at the 2nd Visa Paralympic World Cup in Manchester on Saturday. The invitational World Cup attracted over 360 athletes from 41 countries competing in four sports -swimming, wheelchair basketball, athletics and cycling. Double Paralympic medallist 17 year old Claire Cashmore from Kelly was again in record breaking form. Competing in the (S9) 50m Freestyle, Claire was up against the South African superstar Natalie Du Toit ? the only disabled swimmer in the world to have made a Commonwealth Games International selection for an able bodied team also. Claire swam a blistering race from the start and was rewarded with a new British record of 30.76. Miss Du Toit, still on a taper from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, stormed in setting a new world record in 29.53. The surprise of the race was the Russian swimmer Irina Grazdanova who just pipped Claire to the silver medal in 30.44. Kelly?s Paralympian, 17 year old David Hill, also had an outstanding competition. In the (S9) 100m Backstroke he reached the final which included most of the top ranking world S9 backstrokes along with the current world No1 swimmers Jarrett Perry from USA and the world ranked No3 swimmer James Crisp from GB. David had a terrific start finishing in an impressive fourth place in a time of 1.08.34 just 0.10 outside his best time which he set one month earlier at the British Championships. David also swam in the GB Men?s Team 4x50m Freestyle relay which went on to convincingly win the gold medal in another storming performance recording a time of 1.57.43. David split time of 27.63 was the fastest of the British quartet and also the competition. David and Claire continue their hard training schedule in preparation for the World Championship trials which take place in July and August.
