Lincoln Vulcans Swimming Club's Paralympic Gold medalist Rob Welbourn is competing in Iceland this week in the IPC European Disability Swimming Championships at the Laugardalslaug Swimming Complex in Reykjavik.

The event had not got off to the best of starts for Rob who was hoping to add a European Championship relay Gold to the Paralympic (Beijing) and World Championship (Durban) Golds he already has in an impressive career medal haul. Unfortunately David Roberts of that all conquering, world-record holding squad fell and broke his elbow last week and has been withdrawn from the Championships. 

However Rob went into the Championships ranked no.1 in his favoured 400m freestyle and he also has a chance in the 100m freestyle where an extremely close entry looks too tight to call between Rob, former European record holder David Levecq of Spain, Roy Tobis of Germany and GB rival Graham Edmunds.

Rob opened his medal account in Reykjavik on Monday with a bronze medal in the final of the 200m Individual Medley. Rob who was seeded 4th after the morning heats knew he was one of three in with a chance of the bronze medal in the final, but he also knew it was going to go down to the wire.

After the backstroke Rob was in 5th place and appeared out of contention but a great breaststroke leg brought him back up to 3rd place and in a hard fought final 50 metres he just managed to hold off a fast closing Mike van der Zanden of the Netherlands who finished just over 3-tenths slower than Rob's time of 2.19.36.

The race was won by Lucas Ludwig of Germany (2.15.95) who also snatched the European Record from second-placed swimmer Sven Decaesstecker of Belgium (2.17.73). Rob was deeply disappointed that he didn't medal in the 200 IM in Beijing so the bronze medal in Reykjavik will have gone some way in bolstering his confidence.

Later that evening In the relay race Rob's final leg was an outstanding piece of swimming which won him the admiration of not only the GB spectators but other European supporters in what was a determined and inspirational effort to challenge the Ukrainian lead taking the GB team from 5th to 2nd.

The swim resulted in a  well-deserved British record and a silver medal for Rob and the relay team!

On Wednesday evening Rob raced in the final of his premier event, the 400m freestyle. The Lincoln Vulcan, 22, cantered to victory by 10 metres in the final to secure a Gold medal.

At 200 metres Rob had already taken control of the race and never looked in danger producing a final time of 4.09.15 coming in a full 6 seconds faster than nearest rival Lugwig of Germany and Isayev of the Ukraine. The win takes Welbourn's medal haul to three after he collected silver in the 4x100m medley relay and bronze in the 200m individual medley. Welbourn's winning time of 4:09.35 was only marginally slower than his own European record.