Kindred planning challenge on four fronts

Having missed this summer’s IPC Swimming European Championships in Berlin with a back injury, the six-time Paralympic gold medallist made an immediate impact on his return to action at last weekend’s DSE National Short Course Championships in Sheffield.

Obviously having time out during the summer with my injury set me back a little bit but I guess the rest did me good as well.

As well as setting S6 British records of 32.05 and 1:09.69 in the 50m and 100m Freestyle respectively, the 33-year old stormed to an SM6 world record of 2:39.50 in the 200m Individual Medley.

With less than 100 days to go until he looks to qualify for his fifth consecutive Games, Kindred admits he is eyeing up a repeat of his schedule from Beijing 2008 with the 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley.

And while he has won Paralympic gold in the latter two at the past three Games, Kindred is adamant he is taking nothing for granted, having left the 100m Breaststroke out of his competitive schedule for the past two seasons.

“It’s about putting my head down now and working hard over the winter,” said Kindred.

“Obviously having time out during the summer with my injury set me back a little bit but I guess the rest did me good as well.

“Everyone talks about London and next August with the Olympics and Paralympics but we still have to qualify yet so it’s all about March.

“The 100m Breaststroke will come back in then there’s the 200m Medley, the 50m Fly and maybe the 50m Free as well.

“Then there’s relay selections maybe on top of that. I’ll have a busy programme if I manage to qualify in those events but I want to do that.”