Rob Welbourn books place in England team

Delhi awaits for Rob Welbourn after the disabled swimmer qualified for this year's Commonwealth Games.

The Lincoln Vulcan's Swimming Club member already has an impressive record on the international stage having won relay gold and individual silver in the Beijing Paralympic Games and he now looks set to join the England team in the subcontinent.

The 22-year-old Swansea Performance swimmer qualified for the S10 category at the British International Disability Championships at Sheffield recently.

With only the 100m freestyle available to disability swimmers in Welbourn's S10 category for the Commonwealth Games, Welbourn had to match or better a time set by the third fastest swimmer in the current world rankings.

Welbourn missed out on the time by a mere six 100ths of a second in the morning qualifying, but in the evening finals he swam within a whisker of his own European record to be inside the qualifying time by about half a second.

"My best time was within the qualifying time so I knew I had a chance to make the time for the Commonwealth Games," Welbourn said.

"But I also knew I needed to go faster than I have been for a year."

The championships at Sheffield doubled as a qualifier for the IPC World Championships to be held in August in Eindhoven and several other countries took the opportunity to using the event as their own trials.

In addition to qualifying for the Commonwealth Games, Welbourn put down potentially a hugely significant marker on the first day of competition by beating world number one, Andre Esteves Brazil, from Brazil, in Welbourn's favoured 400m freestyle.

Brazil took gold in the event in both the last World Championships as well as the Paralympics in Beijing.

In both competitions Brazil had opened up an unassailable lead by the halfway mark, but on this occasion Welbourn did not allow the gap to open and in the second half of the race pulled away to beat his rival by just over four seconds, breaking his own European record.