SWIMMING starlet Claire Cashmore will be aiming for golden glory as she takes on the world's best at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games which opens tomorrow.

The gifted 16-year-old teenager, voted Worcestershire All Sports Personality of the Year in 2002, is one of 166 Team GB athletes looking to make a huge impact during 11 days of action in the Greek capital.

Bromsgrove 100m and 200m athlete Richard White and Bromyard wheelchair tennis star Janet McMorran are also among those bidding for medals.

Kidderminster-based Cashmore spent last week preparing for the finals with British swimming coaches in Cyprus and is confident of success from any one of seven races at the Olympic Aquatic Centre.

The Hagley RC High School student's strength lies in the 100m backstroke, but she also enters the 50m and 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 200m individual medley, 4x400m freestyle and 4x400m medley.

Cashmore, competing in the S9 class as her left arm is severed at the elbow, won eight gold medals earlier this year from all her individual races at the Disability Sport England National Junior Swimming Junior Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

She also scooped one gold and four bronze medals in May facing an international field in the Paralympic trials.

The Wyre Forest Swimming Club star, who is ranked fifth in the world by the International Paralympic Committee in the 100m backstroke, will be cheered on poolside from Sunday by parents Duncan and Tina as well as sisters Ashling and Emma.

Duncan said: "Claire is in very good form and she believes her best chance of a medal is in the 100m backstroke and in the 4x400m medley.

"We think she's the youngest girl in the entire British team. It's a big experience for her but she's highly motivated and looking forward to the challenge of competing against the best swimmers in the world.

"She's been well looked after in Cyprus and I think it's great that her head coach at Wyre Forest, Steve Joyce, has gone out to Athens to support her. That's great commitment."

Worcester AC sprinter White will be starring alongside legends Tanni Grey Thompson and Bob Matthews as a member of the 36-strong track and field squad.

The 22-year-old, who has cerebral palsy and runs in the T35 class, is appearing in his second Paralympics having landed two bronze medals at the 2000 games in Sydney.

He also took silver and bronze in the 100m and 200m respectively in Assen, Holland, in last year's European Paralympic Athletics Championships.

White, a winner of the Bromsgrove Sports Council Supreme Male Award and the Highest Achievement Award at Worcester AC, is currently ranked fourth in the world at both 100m and 200m.

McMorran is on course to make history in Athens as the only women's wheelchair tennis player to have contested all four Paralympics since 1992.

The 54-year-old former national champion, who has competed in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney, will take part in the singles and doubles events this time around.

McMorran, who will be supported by husband Will and her three sons, is currently 15th in the world rankings and goes into the Paralympics well prepared, having enlisted the services of Shelsley Beauchamp fitness coach Richard Dilworth.

The draw takes place on September 18 with the first matches, in the doubles, taking place the day after at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

She said: "Getting through that first round is ghastly, I always get very nervous. It would be nice to get a not-too-difficult draw in the first round."