There was cause for celebration at Wirral Met College as one of our students recently competed in Paralympic swimming trials.
Sixteen year old Mattie Harding, who is studying on the Motor Vehicle Level 1 course at Wirral Met, competed in five events in the Paralympic swimming trials in Glasgow, including the fifty metre butterfly, fifty metre freestyle, one hundred metre freestyle, two hundred metre individual medley and four hundred metre freestyle.
Mattie currently swims at Wirral Metro, seven sessions a week. He performed so well in each of the five heats that he qualified for the finals in each race he took part in.
Mattie unfortunately missed out on qualification to the Paralympics in Rio in 2016, however he managed to beat 
his personal best in each final, even beating his personal best by seven seconds in the two hundred metre individual medley!
Mattie commented, “My dreams are to compete in the Commonwealth games next year and then the following year to go to Worlds and then the Olympics in Japan the year after. When I am older I don’t want to be noticed on the streets as a person with a disability, I want to be recognized as a champion. I want to make my friends proud and most of all, to make my family proud”.
Mattie has already achieved incredible success in getting to this stage, everyone at the college is so proud of his achievements.