Worlds-bound disabled swimmer causes ripples

Cameron Leslie sometimes gets a few sideways glances when he shuffles pool-side for training at the Whangarei Aquatic Centre.
The paralympic swimmer has a quadruple limb deficiency with virtually no legs and shorter than usual arms. He hardly cuts a figure most people would associate with the ability to swim.
Sixteen-year-old Leslie is used to the curiosity he attracts: "Occasionally you get a few looks, but it's not too bad. I don't spend much time worrying about it - I'm too busy training."
And the sideways glances soon turn to looks of envy once Leslie has launched himself into the water, because the Whangarei teen swims like a fish and has just won a place in the New Zealand Paralympic team heading to Durban, South Africa, for a world championship meet in December.
Leslie will compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly. He already holds national records in all five and is now swimming under the qualifying times posted for the Athens Paralympics.
Others soon get left in his wake in the Aquatic Centre training lanes.
"They stop looking once I get swimming I suppose. But then you get the questions all the time as well. I don't mind because I would rather people ask me than just stand there and stare," Leslie said. "I guess I discovered swimming almost by stumbling over it. It pretty much started out as a muck around thing, but I always enjoyed swimming and it just went from there.
"Recently I have just been training all the time. I train in the pool five or six times a week plus have three or four gym sessions."
It has been a taxing training regime, but one Leslie says has been easy to maintain. There is a depth of local support for his quest for a start, but it is the chance of even more international competition that he is thriving on.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Swimming Championships in Durban on December 1-8 looms as a significant stepping stone.
Leslie hopes it will open the door for even bigger things, in particular a spot in the NZ Paralympic team heading to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
"I am in the top 10 in the world in all my events. To get in the top three I have a bit of work to do, but I have age on my side. They're all older than me and I am still developing," he said.
Paralympics NZ has selected only two other swimmers to compete in South Africa - Sophie Pascoe, of Christchurch, and Daniel Sharp, of Auckland.