Hot on the heels of Adam Peaty, Jazz Carlin and their Team GB swim teammates, swimmers from the City of Salford Swimming Club excelled at the British National Swimming Championships. The team then qualified for the English National Swimming Championships, at which they won 2nd place in the National Top Club competition.
During the British Nationals at the end of July, youngsters aged 12-19, who train under Salford Community Leisure’s swimming development team, endured an intensive week of competitions at Pond’s Forge in Sheffield.
The group of 19 swimmers brought home three medals, produced six finalists and gained 17 qualifier places for the English National Championships the following week.
Medallists in the British Championships included 15-year-old Marcus Dey, a Great Britain junior triathlete who won bronze in the 200m back stroke, and Lewis Clough, aged 18 from Eccles, who won bronze in the 100m freestyle and silver in the 200m freestyle. Lewis has since travelled to the USA to start a swimming scholarship at Louisiana State University.
Earlier this August was the highly anticipated English National Championships at which the City of Salford Swimming Club came 2nd in the National Top Club category.
The club’s 12-year-old Olivia Herron stole the show by taking home eight medals and four national champion titles in the 100m and 200m breast stroke and the 100m and 200m butterfly events.
Rising star Ewan Wilson, aged 14 from Pendleton, won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly final. Ewan has trained at Clarendon Leisure Centre for many years. Speaking about his experience at the British and English National Championships, Ewan said: “From a young age, my local pool, Clarendon, was by far my favourite place to be. I would spend two to three hours of my Sunday in the pool. From the age of nine I’ve swam for City of Salford, progressing through five groups in four years. The last five months of hard training saw me take silver in the 200m Butterfly at the ASA English National Championships in a time of 2.19.93.”
“My coaches, Adam Naylor and John Stout, are great and they helped me achieve what I did at the events. I’ve been coached to improve day in, day out and now I’ve claimed my first national medal. Hopefully there’s more to come.”
In total, 19 youngsters brought home 13 medals and numerous personal best swim times.
a mighty exciting race saw the closest of finishes where Lewis Clough took bronze in the 17/18 100 metres freezes with just 3/10ths separating 1st and 5th. He did take the lead with 25 to go and a frantic finish ensued. His time of 50.97 was a new PB and he had to compete against his other 3 GB team mates who were members of the 4×100 relay that made the final at the European Junior Championships.
John Stout, head coach of City of Salford Swimming Club and aquatic development manager, said: “Salford Community Leisure is incredibly proud of the achievements of the City’s young swimmers, the swimming scheme where these athletes train and the ongoing success of the City of Salford Swimming Club.
“Both events resulted in superb performances from everyone in our swimming team. The medals, finalists, personal bests and numerous other achievements prove how successful our training philosophy and programme continues to be. Many congratulations to the swimmers, thanks to the parents that support our young people and best of luck for another season of outstanding swimming success.
“We are always interested in hearing from young people that want to start their swimming journey. We hope that this year more children than ever will be inspired to swim by the 2016 Olympics and hope to welcome new faces to swimming clubs and classes across the City.”
