Millward hopes new coach and pool will boost hopes

10:03am Thursday 3rd July 2008

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Swimming: Stephanie Millward has stepped up her preparations for the Paralympic games in September by changing coaches and moving her training to Swansea.

The 26-year-old from Cepen Park, Chippenham, has opted for the experienced Billy Pye instead of her previous coach, 22-year-old Joy Baker.

Millward said: "Billy is a Great Britain swimming coach and has loads of experience. He's been coaching for 20 years.

"I met him through the GB team whilst in Germany, he was so positive and encouraging. It has worked out really well.

"He is based at the National Pool Swansea and so I'll be moving over there until the Paralympics to cut down on travelling."

British Swimming appointed Billy Pye as Head Disability Coach for the centre in June last year with a view to increasing its profile amongst the disability swimming world.

Pye will now be cranking up Millward's training programme to get her ready for the games.

She said: "It's terrifying but exciting. I've been swimming about 25,000 metres a week so far, but this week I'll be doing 33,000 and next week it'll go up to 50,000.

"I'll keep it at that sort of level and then just before the games drop it down so that I'm fresh and at my best."

Millward, who is a coach at Melksham, had been training at various swimming pools around Wiltshire before making the switch to Swansea last Sunday.

She said: "I've been training at Chippenham, Trowbridge, Melksham and Bath. DC Leisure in Trowbridge gave me a free lane two mornings a week to train, which was good, but the facilities at the national pool in Swansea are absolutely superb."