Brilliant Black Country Paralympic star Ellie Simmonds swam her way to more gold and a new world record at the BT Paralympic World Cup. The 14-year-old from Aldridge - Great Britain’s youngest paralympic champion after collecting two titles in Beijing last September - clocked a world record of one minute 16.21 seconds in winning the women’s S6 100 metres freestyle at the Manchester Aquatics Centre at the weekend. That means Walsall-born Simmonds now holds the world record in both the 100m and 400m freestyle. But Simmonds, who was awarded an MBE for her exploits in Beijing as she captured the hearts of the British public, is adamant she is only going to get better. “I was confident enough about getting gold before the race but I really didn’t think I was going to get a new world record,” said Simmonds, who is now based in Swansea. “It is not actually my favourite event. I prefer the 400m and I have got the world record in that as well - but it shows that I am on good form at the moment. “London 2012 is the long-term goal but I am not really thinking about that at the moment. “I am more concerned with taking each race as it comes and constantly improving.” Following Ellie’s successes, Walsall Museum is set to celebrate the Paralympic golden girl by staging a small exhibition of her achievements. The Eleanor Simmonds display is on show in the Your Corner area of Walsall Museum’s The Changing Face of Walsall gallery from now until August 22. Eleanor has been honoured with the BBC Television Sports Personality of the Year award, becoming the first disabled athlete to win this award, and received an MBE from the Queen in the New Year’s Honours List, the youngest person and the first minor to receive this honour. The display features photographs and newspaper cuttings recording Eleanor’s achievements, along with medals and awards, items of sports kit and mementoes presented to Eleanor in Beijing. Although the gold medals, themselves, are too valuable to be loaned, there are medals and certificates which illustrate her rapid progress in the pool from 1999, when she was only five-years-old and onwards. Jennifer Thomson, community history curator at Walsall Museum said: “The Borough is proud of Eleanor’s achievements and we wanted to set aside a display in the ‘Your Corner’ area of the museum in recognition of her success. “Visitors to the Museum will have a chance to meet Eleanor herself on Saturday, July 18, when she will be popping into the Museum for an hour to chat to visitors.” | 
