Twenty-four qualify for national championships showing (From Warrington Guardian)

Twenty-four qualify for national championships showing

6:20am Friday 24th July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

TWENTY-FOUR Warriors of Warrington swimmers will be mounting the blocks to compete in the British Gas ASA National Age Group and Youth Championships in Sheffield starting this week.

All are members of Warrington Borough Council’s elite training squad, headed by Darren Ashley, the rising British swimming coach and Warrington swim development officer.

Warriors’ aces have qualified for a massive 68 individual events as well as two boys’ relay team events.

The Youth swimmers will be in action from Tuesday until August 2.

Aisha Thornton, aged 17, is swimming all six freestyle events as well as the 200m breaststroke, which means she is to be kept busy for the whole six days of competition.

Thornton is currently on the ASA English talent programme and undertaking a sports apprenticeship in swimming.

Charlotte Bradbury, aged 14, is Warriors’ newest member, having recently joined the club from Crew Flyers.

She is competing in the 100m and 200m breaststroke.

Bradbury is one of the highest ranked breaststrokers in the country and is currently representing Great Britain in the European Youth Olympic Festival in Finland leading up to the Sheffield event.

Caitlin McNicolas, aged 14, and Sophie Long, aged 15, are tackling the 100m breaststroke after qualifying for their first National Championships.

Also competing for the first time is 17-year-old Edward Shattock in the 1,500m freestyle event.

Rebecca Pye, aged 14, returns to the Nationals for her second time and is swimming in the 100m and 200m backstroke.

In the senior competition will be Warriors swimmer Scott Hathaway, who trains with Loughborough University swim squad. He is top ranked in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke.

Tim Almond, aged 16, unfortunately will not be competing this year.

He qualified for seven events but has had a season plagued by injury and has had to pull out of the competition.

Warriors’ Age Group swimmers started racing yesterday, Wednesday, and will continue until Sunday.

Seven of them are making their debut at Age Groups.

Returning to the competition for his third year, 14-year-old Jordan Barlow is hoping to improve on last year’s medal-winning performance.

Barlow, who has been on ASA English Talent programme this season, is competing in five events in total. Ewan Miller is to join Barlow, Brendan Spencer and Daniel Wass to compete in both the freestyle and medley team events.

Spencer, aged 14, is competing for the second year running and is tackling the two long-distance freestyle events.

Wass takes on his specialism, the 200m backstroke, and also the 1,500m freestyle.

Thirteen-year-olds Aimee Harvey, Catherine Parker and Michael Ross are in two events each, while 12-year-old Leah Evans is in the 200m backstroke.

Adam Ravenscroft, aged 12, is attending his first Nationals and is racing teammate Andrew Mclay in the 100m and 200m breaststroke events.

Last year, Mclay won a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke and a bronze medal in the 400m individual medley. He hopes to repeat, if not improve, upon those successes.

Oliver Houghton, Warriors’ youngest ever qualifier, is celebrating his 11th birthday during the competition and is swimming the 100m and 200m butterfly.

David Richardson, aged 11, has qualified for six events in total, starting out in the 400m freestyle.

James Ross, aged 11, who joins Richardson in that first event, has also qualified for both the 100m and 200m freestyle.

Kathleen Dawson, aged 11, follows them with the first of her five events, the 400m individual medley.

Her good friend Bethany Young, aged 11, is entering the competition ranked highly for two of her five events.

Ashleigh Wrench, aged 11, is a specialist breaststroker and is competing in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke.

He is joined in those events by fellow butterfly specialist, Aaron Kirchin-Brown, aged 11.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)