Former Burnham-On-Sea resident Anthony Stephens narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the Beijing Paralympics on Sunday (September 7th).
Anthony Stephens, 22, a former King Alfred School pupil, is in China competing in the 2008 Paralympic Games and on Sunday he took part in two races.
He finished third in his heat for the 100 metres freestyle (S5 category) and therefore qualified for the final.
However, in a gripping race, he finished in fourth position in a time of 1 minute, 16 seconds, just one second behind the bronze medal winning swimmer.
.100 metres freestyle (S5)
1st D Dias (Brz) 1min 11.05secs Gold
2nd D Kryzhanovskyy (Ukr) 1:12.73 Silver
3rd R Perkins (US) 1:15.31 Bronze
4th A Stephens (GB) 1:16.07
Anthony (pictured) was back in action on Monday in the 50m Backstroke (S5 category) where he again qualified for the final but was unfortunately disqualified in the main race and therefore did not finish.
But he still has other opportunities to pick up medals during further races and Burnham-On-Sea.com will be closely tracking his progress.
Anthony won a silver medal at the Athens Paralympics in 2004 in the men’s 200m freestyle and two bronze medals in the 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle.
He won a silver medal in this year’s 200m freestyle at the 2008 British Championships and has set himself the goal of doing well again in the 200m freestyle and 50m freestyle races in Beijing.
Anthony now lives in Swansea but has family and friends throughout the Burnham-On-Sea area. Anthony was born with no legs and just one fully developed arm, but has never let this get in his way, and has been swimming from the age of three and breaking records since he was 10.
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