City of Sheffield Swim Squad James and Debbie at the European Shortcourse Championships
James Kirton (20) and Debbie Hall (17) were selected to compete for the GB Senior Team in Trieste, Italy in December. They were selected following their superb swims at the National Championships in the summer.
This was their first GB cap, and were thrilled to be on the team. They both performed exceptionally well, and achieved some lifetime best performances.
James went 1.03.2 in the 100m Breast and 2.15.35 in the 200. Debbie swam a 32.2 in the individual 50m Breast (16th) and a 31.8 in the relay, but also swam a 2.28.43 in the 200m Breast (13th) and made the semi of the 100m Breast in a time of 1.09.14 (14th).
Sheffield Head Coach, Russ Barber, who was also on the team for the trip said “I was very pleased with their swims in Italy. Swimmers can never understand the pressure of these top level meets, where many records are broken, unless they experience it for themselves, and both of our guys handled it very well and rose to the occasion. Both went into the meet un-tapered, which makes their swims even more impressive. I’m sure this is just the start of things to come for them both!”
Debbie said “I was really pleased with my swims and enjoyed the trip a lot. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was really exiting and I learnt lots of new things.”
James added “It was great after years of hard training to finally make my first GB team. It shows that we are up there with the best now and am looking forwards to the British Championships, to try to make the European Long Course team!”