Wealth of honours for Wirral Metro Swimming club

Five squad members from the Birkenhead-based club qualified to swim in the British Swimming Championships in Tollcross, Glasgow between from July 23 to 28.

Qualification is limited to only the top 24 British athletes in each age group.

A club spokesman described the level of swimming by Wirral Metro as "exceptional".

There were some excellent races with many swimmers making in to the top 10 and swimming in the finals.

Tori Sopp, who returned to Wirral Metro for the summer from Drury Panthers University, Missouri, was on top form and achieved four fourth place finishes in open age butterfly and freestyles events.

There were also top-class performances from Georgia Hytner who placed 9th in 100m and 16th in 200m breaststroke open age group, Zoe Carless claiming 4th in the 800m freestyle, Maddie Crompton 13th in the 400 freestyle and Lucas Horton who went in as 24th, managing to gain 6th place in the 50m butterfly final.

The week after was the English National Summer Meet which took place in Sheffield from July 30 to August 2.

Mattie Harding, 20, swam three events and managed to get to three finals; achieving two bronze medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle.

Following on from her success at British Nationals, Georgia Hytner, 17, swam a very impressive personal best to take the bronze medal in the 50 breaststroke.

It was first time at nationals for three of the teams younger swimmers and they all managed to get through to the finals of their events.

Hannah Pettener, 15, swam a personal best in the 200m backstroke and narrowly missed out on a medal taking fourth place.

Millie Gidman, 15, was in top form as she shaved a huge four seconds off her personal best in the 400 Individual Medley (100m of free-style, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke in one race) coming in fifth place; she followed this with sixth in the 50m butterfly with yet again another personal best.

Lucas Horton, the youngest swimmer from the Birkenhead based club at just 14 years, put in a very impressive performance in his events.

He took the title of 100 freestyle English champion, swimming a two second personal best to win the gold medal.

He also took the silver medal in the 100 butterfly, missing out on gold by 0.1 seconds and once again swimming a personal best.

Zoe Carless, 15, moved from indoor swimming and took on the challenge of swimming 3 kilometres in the Open Water National Championships at Thrybergh Country Park; earning herself a bronze medal.

This comes after she took a gold medal in the North West open water championships in June.

The club was also represented by Grace Gidman, 17, in the Scottish National meet in Aberdeen from June 27-30.

She became the Scottish 50m breaststroke champion as well as achieving silver in 100m breaststroke and bronze medals in the 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly.

The club's coach Martin Brooks said "I am very proud of all of the swimmers. They are an example of what can be achieved with hard work and determination.

"To compete at national level is a huge achievement in itself and the swimmers were competing against the best in the country.

"This season has been one of the most successful for this up and coming club but they still have one international event to come."

While the rest of his team mates take a well-earned break, Nathan Young will represent Great Britain in the Deaf World Swimming Championships taking place in Brazil later this month.

Wirral Metro is a performance swimming club based in Europa Pools, Birkenhead with swimmers training up to 17 hours a week, 48 weeks of the year.

They take swimmers from the age of nine who wish to take their swimming to a competitive level swimming at county, regional, national and international events.

Any swimmers interested in a trial can find out more at

www.wirralmetro.co.uk