Dec. 9, 2005
NORMAL, Ill. -
Illinois State's Jennifer Durrant is currently in Minneapolis, Minn., to compete in the US Paralympics Open Swimming Championship this weekend. Between 150-250 athletes with a range of disabilities from 16 countries will be competing this weekend. The competition began on Thursday and will conclude on Saturday. The Championship will hold preliminaries in the morning and final rounds at night.
Durrant, Oak Forest, Ill. native, Durrant, was born with congenital deficiency of the tibia and has been competing in the Paralympics for four years. She qualified for the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece and took seventh in the world in the 100 backstroke. She held the American Record for swimmer with a disability in the 50, 100 and 200-meter backstroke. Durrant is looking forward to competing again this weekend.
"This is a really a big meet," Durrant said. "We have a national team for the US. This meet can determine whether you are on the team. By dropping .03 seconds you can qualify."
Durrant will be competing in the 400-meter freestyle and the 200-meter individual medley on Friday. On Saturday she will be competing in the 100-meter backstroke and the 100-meter freestyle. Illinois State head coach Steve Paska admires Durrant's desire for the sport.
"She loves the sport," Paska said. "Jennifer works extremely hard and has a great attitude. She is in terrific shape and she has been focusing on this for some time. She takes pride in representing the USA. I was really glad she wanted to come out for the team."
Further information about this weekend's competition can be found at www.usparalympics.org.
