Edinburgh swimmer Sean Fraser fully focused on making London 2012 Paralympics

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 10:19

EDINBURGH swimmer Sean Fraser insists his place at the London 2012 Paralympics is anything but a sure thing – despite returning from last month's European Championships in Iceland with four medals.

The Warrender member bagged bronze in the 50m and 400m freestyle, as well as the 100m backstroke as he underlined his growing reputation in the pool.

Fraser, 19, was also part of the gold-medal winning 100m freestyle team in Reykjavik, as he added to the bronze he won in Beijing's Water Cube at last year's Paralympic Games.

But with the Paralympic torch now just 1,000 days away from lighting up London, Fraser knows he needs to keep improving to take his place in the GB squad.

"It went really well in Iceland but being part of this team means you have to be in the top five of these competitions and challenging for medals," he said.

"It was a nice medal haul to come home with but to keep my place in the team I've got to keep doing things like that. The British team has already improved since Beijing and it's going to get better and better in the run-up to London.

And the great thing is that there are so many youngsters coming through. Even swimmers of my age are being pushed by younger swimmers.

"Backstroke is my main event but by London I know that it will be a couple of seconds faster at the very least. We set the bar high in China with some great results but there's no doubt that we want to better that in London."

Fraser faces a busy 2010 with the World Championships in Eindhoven scheduled for August and the Commonwealth Games pencilled in for October.

But he admits his achievements over the next 1000 or so days will pale into insignificance when the London Paralympics finally gets underway.

"We've got some big events next year with the World Champs and the Commonwealth Games but everything we do is geared towards 2012. That's not taking anything away from the Worlds but the Paralympics is the biggest event we could ever go to.

"And having experienced Beijing and the way the Chinese people got behind their competitors is an inspiration.

"I can't think of anything more amazing than being cheered to victory by a home crowd at the Paralympics.

"Everything is starting to come together in London and hearing that the roof went on the aquatics centre the other week and moving under 1,000 days to go means it's getting closer and closer."

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