GWENT swimmer Liz Johnson vowed to repeat her British Champion-ships heroics this weekend as she bids to secure qualification for the IPC World Championships.
Despite the presence of the likes of double Olympic champions Rebecca Adling-ton in Sheffield, it was the 24-year-old who stole the show, lowering her own 100m breaststroke world record en route to gold.
Johnson, pictured, pipped British rival Charlotte Henshaw to gold and will need to do that again at this weekend’s British International Disability Swim-ming Championships if she is to guarantee selection for this summer’s World Champion-ships in Eindhoven.
And while the reigning world and Paralympics champion admits Henshaw’s presence will mean she won’t have things all her own way, she insists she is fully focused on sealing her place on the plane to Eindhoven this August.
“Everyone is training really hard and looking forward to London 2012 and I would be delighted if I could come away with another gold medal,” said Johnson, who has a busy few weeks ahead, including the Paralympic World Cup in May.
“But before that we have the World Championships coming up in the summer and I can’t think of anything better than to go there and defend my title.
“There is a lot of stiff competition out there and Charlotte Henshaw isn’t too far behind me which I think helps in events like this.
“With this not being a main meet in our cycle a lot of people are struggling to post fast times but me and Charlotte know we have to keep racing each other.
“If I hadn’t have broken the world record, I’m sure she was pretty close to doing so herself.
“Knowing she is there helps me because I know she is going to be there but during the swim, she was in lane one and I was in lane eight.
“It would be nice if we could go next to each other and it’s nice to have someone else there to push you on.”
Johnson’s swim of 1.39.58minutes at the British Champion-ships saw her lower her world record by 0.11 of a second, while she also bagged silver in the 200m individual medley.
And the Gwent-born star admitted her record-breaking swim had come as a surprise, she added: “I was only using this as a filler event because there is nothing else on.
“I am still not quite sure where the world record swim came from.
“I am mid taper and I am hoping to swim a lot better than that in the world trials, hopefully this will prove a stepping stone to a quicker time at the trials.”
Visa is proud to be presenting partner of Team 2012, a team of 1,200 athletes across the UK who are aiming to compete at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For more information go to www.lifeflowsbetter.com
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