World record holder aims for another gold at Paralympics

Whangarei swimmer Cameron Leslie was on top of the world when he won gold at the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008.

And he's aiming high again at the London Paralympics where he will try to crack the men's 150m individual medley world record he set in China and seek more medals in the 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke.

The 22-year-old journalist - he'll be covering sport for the Northern Advocate when he returns - was born with a quadruple limb deficiency. Coached by Simon Mayne, of Kaiwaka, he has been swimming 50km a week to prepare for the London Games.

"I'm in the best condition of my life. I've lost about 7kg this year and I'm by far the fittest I've ever been," Leslie said yesterday. "Training is going well, the times have been coming down all year."

New Zealand Paralympics swimmers were training in Wales until the weekend, when they moved to London where the 11-day Paralympics open on Wednesday and run until September 9.

Swimming will take place at the same Aquatic Centre used by Olympic competitors and Leslie will have his first race in a 200m freestyle heat on Saturday, and hopefully, the 200m freestyle final on Sunday, along with a 150m individual medley heat.

The big race for the world record-holder - the 150m individual medley final - will be next Monday with Leslie under pressure to repeat his gold-winning Beijing performance. Sky Sport will show highlights.