Lewis breaks national record

FRIDAY, AUGUST 10: Teenager Jessica Lewis is speeding towards the 2012 London Paralympics in fine style.

The wheelchair athlete broke her own Bermuda national record in the 200m when she competed in Sherbrooke, Quebec on the weekend.

Lewis, 19, stopped the clock at 33.69. She topped the podium in all three races she competed in — the 100m, 200m and 400m.

Lewis told the Bermuda Sun: “It felt really good because I’ve only done T53 (which is a racing designation for para-athletes) previously, twice, and both were this year and the last one was only the same track so it was pretty cool to go back there and do another 33 but only better.”

Lewis previous best was a 33.77 set on the same track. She previously had a 33.81 at the Desert Classic in May in Mesa, Arizona.

Lewis is qualified for three events for London with personal best times of 18.51 in the 100 metres and 106.12 in the 400 metres.

She will be Bermuda’s first ever para-athlete in track.

Excited

This will be the first Games for Lewis, but she won’t be completely new to the Olympic experience.

In 2008 she attended the Beijing Paralympics as a way to a get the flavour of what the Games are all about.

While that is helpful, Lewis said going as an athlete will be a completely different experience.

She said watching Bermuda’s Olympic team compete over the past two weeks and knowing she will be there at the same venues, “hasn’t really sunk in yet.

“I know that I’m going, but I was watching the athletics on TV and thinking ‘I’m going to be competing in that stadium.’

“I’m really excited, but it still really hasn’t hit me.”

She has been training in Canada with coach Ken Thom on the weekends while she attends Brock University in Ontario.

During the week Lewis works with personal trainer Scott Frendo-Cumbo, who puts her through her paces by using her racing chair on a roller, which works like a treadmill.

The Paralympics begin on August 29.