Herefordshire Swimming star Nyree Lewis gets ready for her date with royalty (From Hereford Times)

Herefordshire Swimming star Nyree Lewis gets ready for her date with royalty

8:00am Sunday 15th November 2009

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SWIMMING star Sascha Kindred OBE won't be with his fiancee Nyree Lewis during her date with royalty next month.

The 31-year-old will have to 'Blame it on Rio'

because he is competing at the inaugural IPC Short Course World Championships in Brazil.

Lewis, also a talented swimmer, almost qualified for Rio de Janeiro, too, but she missed out by just 0.1 of a second.

Welsh-born Lewis will be joined by her mum and two brothers when she receives the MBE in Windsor for her services to disability sport.

The Credenhill couple have just returned from a successful European Paralympic Championships with Great Britain in Iceland.

Kindred clinched three gold medals and a silver and Lewis scooped gold at the Reykjavik event.

Kindred said: "This year has been a bit easier because it's the year after Beijing so training has been a bit more relaxed and we are trying out new things in training.

“But I will be heading off to Rio for the World Short Course Championships which is the first-ever so I am looking forward to that.

"Nyree and I have a good rivalry in our sport and we thrive off each other. We lift each other and want to perform to the best of our abilities."

Kindred revealed the motivation which has driven him to win six Paralympic gold medals.

"It's winning the medals and the recognition, which motivates me," he said. "I love competing and I am a very sore loser."

He plans to compete at the London Parlaympics in 2012.

"I did a lot of radio interviews in Iceland and the BBC were calling me the veteran. I would like to go to the Paralympics in London and re-evaluate after that.

"Mark Foster was 38 years old when he was in Beijing but, for a swimmer, 31 is relatively high. I am still getting quicker and breaking world records so that's pleasing."

Lewis has this year been concentrating on her backstroke which brought her gold medal joy in Iceland.

But she said: "Hopefully, next year, I will be back to doing more than one event, but the backstroke is definitely the one I am looking for."

She has won two gold medals at the Paralympics.

The couple are coached in Leominster by Emma Patrick and put in a lot of hard graft in training and at championships.

"There's always lots of hard work involved but, in Iceland, we went to the Blue Lagoon which was amazing and we all dived out of our hotel when we noticed the spectacular Northern Lights,” said Lewis.

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