The City of Sheffield Swim Squad has had a busy summer of competitions, and has come away with a fantastic set of results and achievements.
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Braxston Timm and Tom Sunter kicked things off to a fine start as they travelled to Finland for the European Junior Championships with coach Russ Barber. This is a very tough level of competition, with Europe's best 17 and 18 year olds going head to head. Both boys just missed out on individual medals in their best events, with Brax coming 4th in the 100 Butterfly and Tom coming 4th in the 800 Free. Both were excellent swims though showing their great future potential. The week was topped off with Braxston winning 2 silver medals with the 4x100m Medley and 4x200m Free teams.
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Tom Sunter then moved onto the European Junior Open Water Championships in Holland, and was joined by Sheffield teammate Ellie Faulkner. Both continued Sheffield's rich history of distance swimmers by performing very well, both of them finishing in the top 8 over the 5km distance. Aynsley Heseltine was also in action at the Fina Open Water World Cup also in Holland. She swam in the senior event over the grueling 10km distance and finished an excellent 4th place against some of the best and most experienced open water swimmers in Europe…well done Aynsley.
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Next up, we had our Paralympic star James Crisp in action at the IPC World Championships also in Holland. James swam very well indeed, achieving pbs in his 200IM and 400Fc, but the highlight was a silver medal in the 100m Backstroke in a personal best time and new British Record. James is now re-focussing on the Olympics in London 2012 where he is a favourite to win a medal in his home country. 2010 was special for the Olympic movement, as the very first Youth Olympics was held in Singapore. Ellie Faulkner was picked to swim for GB against the very best youth swimmers from all over the world in the 100, 200 and 400m Freestyle events. After competing hard in the first 2 events, she then had a great battle in her favoured 400m Free, where she won an amazing Bronze medal in a really close fight. This is a fantastic achievement, and she has been busy in the spotlight since, appearing on the One Show and Blue Peter in her Olympic kit and showing off her medal! Well done Ellie! During all of this International action, we also had the Age Group and Youth Nationals at Ponds Forge, the National Open Water Championships at Rother Valley and the ASA Senior Nationals at Sunderland, where we came away with many medals, dozens of personal best swims and with City of Sheffield Swim Squad ending up as Top Club in the Open Water Championships, 3rd best club at the Youth Championships, and with Becky Turner qualifying for the Commonwealth Games in October. Head Coach Russ Barber said "What a great summer we have had!! Everyone has worked so hard this year, and is having a well deserved break now. I'm so pleased for the swimmers and they have got their rewards for the commitment and hard work they have put in. It's great to see the Sheffield swimmers doing so well at all levels from the Little Olympics kids in the swimming lessons right through to the International guys at the top of the tree. These great achievements are a testament to the continued support and partnership of Sheffield City Council via its swim training scheme and top notch coaching team, S.I.V. and Ponds Forge and the City of Sheffield Swim Squad. We have a unique and successful program here that we should all be very proud of, and we have a very bright future indeed."