Published: Thursday, 4th January, 2007 12:00
Lindsay marks golden decade with Durban title
By Sportsdesk
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Pic by: Dunfermline Press
INCAS swimmer Andrew Lindsay has celebrated 10 years at the top of his sport after adding another gold medal to his collection recently.
The 27-year-old won a title at the world championships for swimmers with a disability in Durban, South Africa, to continue an incredible run that has seen him undefeated in the S7 100 metres backstroke since the Atlanta Paralympic Games in 1996.
It’s Lindsay’s third consecutive world title and he won in 1:15.31 – just 0.1 seconds short of his own world record.
Disability in competition is ranked from S1-S10 with one being the most profound. Lindsay suffers from spinal muscular atrophy but his “take every day as it comes” attitude means his disability doesn’t get in the way of achievement at the highest level.
Back in November, Press Sport reported on his preparations for Durban which paid off as he also won a silver medal in the 400m freestyle in a personal best time of 5:01.66.
He said, “It’s quite an achievement because it takes a lot of hard work to try to keep myself up there for that length of time.
“You’ve always got some new ones coming through so you’ve got to be on top of your game.
“I was quite confident but you can never be too confident because you don’t know what the other guys from other countries have been doing. You just know what you’ve been doing swimming against your team mates.”
Lindsay has also tasted gold in the Paralympics of Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) but was pleased to also win a silver medal in Durban.
“I’ve been working on the 400 free and back quite a lot this year so I was quite pleased to pick up that extra medal, it’s the first world championships where I have picked up two medals.”
Lindsay’s success also helped Great Britain become world champions, pipping the US by one gold medal.
“The mood of the team was one of the best I’ve known,” he said. “You could not fault the team spirit.”
Lindsay admitted he was slightly frustrated to miss out on a world record by such a fine margin.
“I had been trying all year to get it and I thought I’d get it in Durban,” he said. “When I saw how close I was, I was thinking what I could have done better just to get that little bit extra.”
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