The end of cycle short course competitions began with Aviva racing at the Austrian SC National Championships in Graz where she set four huge new best times in her four events, winning both the 400m IM and 200m Backstroke, the former in a new Austrian junior record time of 4.45.92.
Blythe and Josh were selected to represent Aquatics GB at the Rotterdam Qualification Meet as part of their ongoing development towards international success. They were joined by coach Greg King-Limb as part of the GB coaching team. Both swimmers enjoyed good success in this long course meet.
The swimming team then had a very busy and successful weekend at the Swim England National Winter Meet in Sheffield and Swim Wales National Winter Meet in Swansea. Alongside some incredible performance in the pool, it was great to see the Mount Kelly team spirit shining bright and bring great atmosphere to both venues.
In Sheffield the team won an impressive 29 medals from 88 finalists across the four-day competition. There was huge depth across all events with great swims coming from both the 800m and 1500m Freestyle Heat Declared Winner events. Multiple national records were also broken across the competition.
Over in Swansea, the team also produced exceptional results winning 18 medals from our 50 finalists, despite the disruption of storm Darrah cancelling all races on the Saturday.
We also had a small team of athletes racing in Plymouth at the Plymouth Leander Christmas Meet where there were some significant improvements made to personal best times. They will race again next Sunday to conclude this competition.
Finally, Mantas, Abdul and Meral race this week for their respective nations at the 2024 World Aquatics Short Course Championships in Budapest. We wish them the very best of luck racing on the world stage against the very best athletes.
Article by Greg King-Limb, Assistant Director of Swimming
Categories: Swimming
