Ashleigh McConnell preparing for Rio Paralympics

SUNBURY residents will be able to cheer for one of their own at September’s Rio Paralympics with 20-year-old Ashleigh McConnell set to go for gold.

Ashleigh McConnell is preparing for the Rio Paralympics.

SUNBURY residents will be able to cheer for one of their own at September’s Rio Paralympics with 20-year-old Ashleigh McConnell set to go for gold.

Ms McConnell, 20, confirmed her selection after coming second in the S9 (limb deficient) 50m and 100m freestyle events at April’s Australian Championships in Adelaide, both in times ranking her in the top half dozen in the world.

Already owning a gold medal for relay in last year’s World Championship, Ms McConnell could also be selected in the relay event, increasing her prospects of standing on the dais.

There is also redemption for the former Sunbury College student who trains or competes six days a week from MSAC — she missed selection for the London Paralympics by 0.12 seconds and experiencing the same disappointment for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games selection.

“It was kind of weird for me during the selection process,” Ms McConnell said.

“I competed on the first night of competition and got the qualifying time, but you have to wait until the last day before you know as there is limited swimmers taken and world rankings come into it.”

With selection confirmed, the realities of heading to the peak event of her sport is kicking in. Ms McConnell has had numerous injections for travelling to Brazil as well as attending regular briefings on the logistics of the games village and Rio de Janeiro, which is being overshadowed by concerns over the mosquito-born Zika virus.

A 10-day camp and competition at Auburn University in Alabama will precede the event and her parents Glenn and Linda will be in Rio to watch her swim for gold.

In training between now and the Alabama competition which will see Australian athletes vie with the likes of the US and UK swimmers, Ms McConnell is hoping to make up the tenths of seconds that could be enough to bring gold home.

“Last year was a breakthrough for me in getting on the World Championships team after I’d missed out on a few teams — I’m hoping for a similar jump now,” she said.

Ms McConnell, who was born without a left forearm or hand, said swimming was just one of many sports she played growing up in Sunbury.

“I did karate, dancing, basketball — I always had a few sports on at once and I swam in Sunbury when I was 13 and 14,” she said.

While swimming is set to be her focus for the this Paralympics and hopefully the next, Ms McConnell is also preparing for a career, studying business at RMIT.

Ms McConnell is a Sunbury Leader senior sports star nominee. Click HERE to nominate a sports star, presented by Sportsmart.