Rob Welbourn - European Championships 2009

Rob's gone to Iceland!

Lincoln Vulcans Swimming Club's Paralympic Gold medallist Rob Welbourn jets off to Iceland on Wednesday of this week to compete in the IPC European Disability Swimming Championships at the Laugardalslaug Swimming Complex in Reykjavik.

The event has not got off to the best of starts for Rob who was hoping to add a European Championship relay gold to the Paralympic (Beijing) and World Championship (Durban) golds he already has in an impressive career medal haul. Unfortunately David Roberts of that all conquering, world record holding squad fell and broke his elbow last week and has been withdrawn from the Championships. On paper, the gold medal now looks unlikely and in fact a relay medal of any colour will come as something of a surprise.

However Rob goes into the Championships ranked No.1 in his favoured 400m freestyle, but expect Lucas Ludwig of Germany to be a threat. Rob also has a chance in the 100m freestyle where an extremely close entry looks too tight to call between Rob, former European record holder David Levecq of Spain, Roy Tobis of Germany and GB rival Graham Edmunds.

Rob's schedule of events for the 7 days of competition is expected to be as follows:

Sunday 18th - 100m Butterfly
Monday 19th - 200m Individual Medley
Wednesday 21st - 400m Freestyle
Thursday 22nd - 50m Freestyle
Friday 24th - 100m Freestyle and 4x100m Freestyle Relay