BOURNEMOUTH’S Alice Tai admits swimming in the London 2012 pool as part of this year’s National Paralympic Day only makes her more determined to fulfil her dream of making Rio 2016.

Tai travelled to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to take part in a Great Britain versus Europe head-to-head in the pool for the 2014 National Paralympic Day celebrations.

It was the first time that the London Aquatics Centre had hosted international swimming since the 2012 Paralympics and Tai certainly made sure to enjoy the experience in front of a home crowd.

The 15-year-old was busy too, first taking victory in the multi-classification 100m backstroke before finishing fourth in the 400m freestyle and second in the 100m butterfly.

She also helped Britain’s women’s 200m freestyle relay team finish as runners-up and Tai, who was a spectator for London 2012, had no complaints from her performances in the pool.

“It went really well. I won the 100m backstroke in my first race and the time wasn’t too bad either,” she said.

“The 400m freestyle was horrible as I haven’t really been training lately so that was hard work and the 100m butterfly was solid too.

“It’s great to swim in the pool here. It’s a fast pool and I’ve swum here a couple of times before. I didn’t make London but I did come and watch.

“That has inspired me so much and to be a part of this has motivated me even more to get to the real thing. My dream is to make Rio and it would be amazing to be able to do that.”

Swimming was one of four sports contested at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as part of the day’s celebrations with boccia, goalball and wheelchair basketball taking place in the Copper Box Arena.

And with events also taking place across the UK in Birmingham and Liverpool respectively in order to celebrate and promote disability sport, Tai was proud to have played her part in the day.

“This event is really increasing the profile of disability sport and the number of people who have come out to watch is incredible and I thank every single one of them,” she added.

“It was a great atmosphere and the crowd was so loud. It’s great to see so much attention being paid to disability sport.”

  • National Paralympic Day aims to promote Paralympic sport across the UK, giving people the opportunity to relive the wonder of 2012 and to support Paralympic sports and athletes. The day is supported by the Spirit of 2012 Trust. Visit Paralympics.org.uk/npd2014 for more details.