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Beijing silver for Libby

10/ 9/2008

BOLLINGTON-BORN sprinter Libby Clegg has won a Paralympic silver medal, claiming a new British record in the process.

Clegg, alongside her guide runner Lincoln Asquith, narrowly missed out on gold in the T12 100m final as Ukrainian double world champion Oxana Boturchuk ran the second fastest time in Paralympic history.

Team GB's young track queen smashed her own personal best times in each round at the Bird's Nest venue, and is already planning to go for gold in London in four years' time.

Clegg, who suffers from the deteriorating eye condition Stargardt's disease and only has peripheral vision in her left eye, clocked 12.71sec in her heat. She shaved two hundredths of a second off her time in the semi-final before a stunning 12.51 in the final at Beijing's national stadium.

The former St Albans Primary School pupil and Macclesfield Harrier, who now attends the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh, now has the heats for her stronger event, the 200m, in mind and the 18-year-old will begin her bid for more medal success on Monday.

But her Paralympic dream extends beyond Beijing, as she has the 2012 Games in mind.

Clegg said: “The Ukrainian athlete is wicked fast [Boturchuk ran the final in 12.38sec]. Hopefully she'll be there in London and we can have a good rematch.

“I heard all the chanting in the crowd for me, my family were shouting ‘Libby, Libby, Libby’.

“I'm so excited, I felt really good. I was not as nervous as I thought I would be before the start.

"I don't think it’s hit me that I've got a silver but it’s amazing."