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Marvellous Millward waits for triple Paralympic confirmation

Swimming: Stephanie Millward says she is living the dream as she sits by the letterbox waiting for confirmation of her Paralympic qualification.

The 26-year-old from Cepen Park South, Chippenham, should receive official confirmation of her place in the Beijing Paralympics today after the final qualifying rounds at the weekend.

Millward, who suffers from MS, will swim the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and her preferred 100m backstroke following the British Swimming Olympic Trials in Sheffield.

She even set a new European record of 1.13.1 seconds on her way to wining the butterfly.

"This is my dream and I am loving it," she said.

"This is always what I have wanted to do and it has come true at long last.

"I am very happy and very excited but it's not really hit home yet.

"I probably need to see a letter and it needs to be really formal saying I am definitely going."

But her place is a formality after a 66.3 second swim saw her finish second in the freestyle and a time of 1.13.2 saw her canter to a win in the backstroke.

But any qualification party is on hold for the moment.

"I can't drink at the moment because I am in training but maybe someone might buy me a bottle of wine," she joked.

And it is her training which she is planning to concentrate on ahead of the games, rather than rest on her laurels.

"I am hoping to up my training, 20 hours would be nice," said Millward, who trains for 12 hours a day.

"It is so I can get myself a whole lot fitter and I might do some land training and power working in so I can get myself totally prepared.

"It will help mentally as well as physically. It will make me mentally strong because I will know I will have done enough training to do what I want to do.

"I want to break the world record and I want to do it in style. I want people to say my God, she was quite good.'"

9:23am Thursday 1st May 2008

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