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Swim star heads off to Olympics

24/ 7/2008

HEYWOOD swimmer Keri-Anne Payne has been making last-minute preparations before jetting off to China tomorrow to compete in the Beijing Olympic Games.

She will be competing in three events, the 200m and 400m individual freestyle and the open water 10k.

The 20 year-old has come a long way since she started swimming at the tender age of four for the DI Dolphins in her home city of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Keri-Anne moved to England with her family in 2001 and joined the Aquabears swimming club in Rochdale where her natural talent was soon spotted.

In order to reach her full potential the young swimmer moved to Stockport Metro swimming club in 2004. Since the move Keri-Anne has continued to improve year upon year with guidance from coach Sean Kelly, and will soon be competing in arguably the biggest sporting event in the world.

"I am very, very excited", said the Heywood star. "I'm going to go out there and swim the best that I can".

Keri-Anne has been undergoing intense training as she explained: "My training has been going really well so far, it's going as planned.

"But it is a lot of work, I do 60 to 70k a week in the pool as well as spending time in the gym and running".

After her return from Beijing Keri-Anne will turn her attentions to her next major goal in what has already been a successful career.

She added: "Hopefully the next four years will go well and I will be competing in the 2012 Olympics in London. That would be great."