Home Sport Conwy County Sport

Swimming: Double British gold for Old Colwyn swimmer

Aug 14 2008 By Tim Channon

BLIND swimmer Rowena Breese-Thomas from Old Colwyn will be heading for Australia next year after winning two gold medals and two silver at the British Transplant Games in Sheffield last week.

She has been selected for the Great Britain team to compete in the World Transport Games on the Gold Coast next August.

"I've never been to Australia so that will be exciting, although I’ve got 12 months hard training to get in before then," said Rowena.

She set three personal best times at Sheffield to win gold in both the 50 metres breast stroke and 200 metres front crawl, as well as silver in the 100 metres front crawl.

She put in a particularly strong swim to win the 200 metres in 3mins 43secs, knocking a big chunk off her previous best time of 3.59 set in the World Games in Bangkok last year.

Rowena also won silver in the 10 pin bowling, with her mother, Iris, helping line-up her strikes.

"I only entered for a bit of fun and expected to get knocked out in the first round, but ended up in the final and the silver medal ," laughed Rowena.

Rowena lost her sight in her early thirties due to diabetic complications and four years later needed kidney and pancreas transplants at the Royal Liverpool Hospital – which she now represents in the Transplant Games.

Site Tools

Related Stories

Related Tags

(What's this)