TUMUT simmer Ashley van Rijswijk has taken another confidence-boosting step toward her Paralympics dream after securing a silver medal in her first meet representing Australia.
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The 19-year-old swam a personal best 1:20.21 in the Monday night's 200 breaststroke final at the Global Games in Brisbane.
Van Rijswijk finished behind Spain's Morales Alonso (1:16.18), but edged out Brazil's Debor Carneiro (1:20.23) and Russian Eliz Barbatina (1:20.33) to secure silver.
The Global Games is van Rijswijk's second international event, but the first time she's worn the green and gold as she looks to make the Australian squad for next year's Paralympics.
She qualified for this year's world championships in South Korea in the 100m breaststroke, her pet event, but was unable to compete as she wasn't internationally qualified.
Competing at the Global Games should tick that box.
"She still wants to break 1:20, which she has done over winter and at training but wants to achieve in a competition," her father Craig said.
"In the 100 she was seeded sixth and qualified second for the final, before getting silver.
"It's been a good event for her. There's almost 50 countries here and there's a couple of really fast Russian and Spanish girls. There's a lot of competition."
Van Rijswick also squeezed into the final of the 50m freestyle on Sunday night.
She will finish her meet with the 200m breastroke on Wednesday and the 50m breaststroke on Thursday.
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