London - Australia's Matthew Cowdrey on Wednesday qualified fastest for the S9 men's 50m freestyle final, putting him on track for an 11th gold to become his country's most decorated Paralympian.
The 24-year-old world record holder at the event won through to Wednesday night's final in the one-length sprint in 25.63sec.
But the Gold Coast swimmer said that surpassing athlete Tim Sullivan's current record of 10 Paralympic golds was not at the front of his mind.
“I'm definitely not thinking about it. I've still got four more swims to go, so if it happens it happens. If not, then tomorrow night we move on,” he told reporters.
“Tamas (Toth of Hungary) is a young guy that's coming up pretty quickly and he looks like he's swimming pretty quick. A lot of those guys swam the 400 last night, so I think that probably works to my advantage a little bit.”
In London, Cowdrey, an amputee since childhood, has won two golds in the S9 100m backstroke and the 4x100m freestyle relay 34
points. He has also won two silver in the S9 100m butterfly and SB8 100m breaststroke.
He is still to race in the S9 100m freestyle and SM9 200m individual medley.
He won five gold and three silver four years ago in Beijing and broke five world records. In Athens in 2004, he won three gold.
Sapa-AFP