MOUNT Cotton Paralympian Paige Leonhardt smashed a 16-year-old swimming world record at the 2020 Vorgee Brisbane Short Course Champs in Chandler last weekend.
This was the first championship meet since the COVID-19 outbreak.
Leonhardt swam the multi class 100m breaststroke in 1:13.46, eclipsing the previous record of 1:14.69 set in 2004.
This was a result after a long weekend of racing, early mornings and late nights.
Leonhardt's mother Tanya said this world para swimming record was in addition to the two Virtus: world intellectual impairment sport world records she set in the 50m butterfly (S14) and 50m breaststroke (SB14).
Leonhardt won Brisbane champion titles and a bronze medal at the Brisbane Short Course Champs.
"Paige has been actively training right throughout COVID-19, swimming in lakes and oceans also keeping up with her dry land agility based training," her mother said.
The 19-year-old swimmer moved to UQ Swim Club in December last year. She trains six days per week and incorporates gym twice a week, including pilates.
"She took a gap year to train for the Tokyo Paralympics but due to the pandemic the Olympic year has been rescheduled to August 2021. Paige will attend trials for the games in June 2021," Tanya said.
Leonhardt was also awarded a trophy on the weekend for Best Performance as a Disability Swimmer at the previous 2019 Vorgee Brisbane Short Course Championships.
She will be back in the pool competing for more titles in two weeks time at the 2020 McDonalds Queensland Short Course Championships, where she hopes to beat the 100m butterfly world para swimming world record.
