A partially sighted swimmer from Shirley has just returned from the Disability Sport England BT Swimming Championships in Sheffield with one gold and five silver medals.

Owen Sweet, 25, of Stuart Crescent, lost most of the sight in both eyes when he was 15 but took time out from his masters degree in space science studies at Kent University to compete.

A Croydon Amphibian, Owen has competed in international swimming competitions before and last weekend was part of the winning South East visually impaired 100m relay team which set a new record. He also claimed five second places individually and four bronze medals.

He said: "It's a national competition for all of Britain, so the standard was pretty high. There were a lot of paralympians there."

Sweet was delighted with his medal haul, especially as his studies allow him less time for training than in previous years.

"It is difficult to juggle the swimming with studying (a masters degree in astro-physics), which is really hard work. But swimming takes my mind off things and enables me to focus on something other than my disability or my studies."

Having narrowly missed out on selection for the Atlanta Paralympics team in 1996, Owen has not given up hope of representing his country on the international stage, perhaps in Athens in 2004.

He said: "Narrowly missing out on Atlanta was a disappointment because I qualified but didn't quite make the team. I'm going to give it a big shot but I'll be about 28, so I might have slowed up a bit by then."

Before then Owen has plenty of competitions to look forward to, including the Medway Masters this month and possibly representing Great Britain against Holland in January.

November 14, 2001 16:00