Our alumni include:
Adam Peaty - Double Olympic Champion, World Record Holder
Adam is one of the most successful swimmers in the world, winning multiple medals at the Olympics, World and European Championships, and holds world records in the 50m and 100m breaststroke. Adam trained with Mel Marshall at City of Derby for many years, before moving to Loughborough. Adam recently moved to Repton, where is coached by former Derventio Excel coach Jamie Main. Adam is in training now for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, as the addition of the 50m breaststroke give him another opportunity to rewrite the record books!
Abbie Wood – European Champion, British Record Holder
Abbie swam with Buxton, then joined Derventio Excel where she swam under coach Andi Manley before moving to Loughborough Performance Centre. She has achieved huge success including making the 2024 Olympic final in 200m individual medley. She also won 3 medals at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in December 2024.
Abbie also competed at the Paris Olympics in 2024, reaching finals in the 200m individual medley and the women's 4 x 200m freestyle relay, finishing 5th in both. More recently she raced at the World Championships in Singapore in 2025.
Abbie moved to the Manchester Performance Centre for the 2025-26 season.
Jacob Whittle – European/Commonwealth Champion, British Record Holder
Jacob learnt to swim at Ripley Rascals under Glenn Fisher (now Head Coach at Derby Excel), before joining Derventio Excel. He broke the British freestyle records from the age of 14 upwards, and was one of the youngest swimmers on the team at the Tokyo Olympics, then competed again at the Paris Olympics in 2024. He has won numerous international medals already, despite still being in the early stages of his swimming career. He joined Loughborough Performance Centre in 2021, then moved to Bath Performance Centre in 2023. More recently, Jacob competed at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore. Jacob moved to Repton to be coached by former Derventio Excel head coach Jamie Main in September 2025.
Greg Butler – European Championships and Commonwealth Games medallist
Greg was a City of Derby swimmer for many years, a breaststroke swimmer training alongside legend Adam Peaty. Greg moved to Loughborough Performance Centre, and has represented GB at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games, swimming the 100m and 200m breaststroke events. Greg raced at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, making the 100m breaststroke semi-final.
Imogen Clark – 4x European/Commonwealth Medallist, 3x British Record Holder
Imogen started her swimming career at Rykneld Swimming Club, then moved to Derventio Excel. She has had outstanding success throughout her career, representing GB. Her most recent success was at the short course World Championships 2023 where she won 2 medals. Imogen moved to Repton from the 2025-26 season to train alongside Adam Peaty, aiming for qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics where the addition of the 50m breaststroke event gives Imogen a great chance of success.
Molly Renshaw – World/European Champion, British Record Holder
Molly swam with Ripley then joined Derventio Excel when she was 11 years old. She was a finallist at the Rio Olympics and Tokyo Olympics in 200m breaststroke, and is the current British record holder in this event.
Ross Davenport – Commonwealth Champion, Former British Record Holder
Ross swam with City of Derby, and represented Great Britain at the Olympics, world and European Championships. He won 2 gold medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Sarah Vasey – Commonwealth Champion
Sarah swam with both City of Derby and Derventio Excel, then moved to Loughborough. Sarah won a gold medal in 50m breaststroke at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 in Australia. She represented GB at the Tokyo Olympics
Jamie Ingram – Commonwealth Games medallist
Jamie swam with Ripley, then joined Derventio Excel aged 12. He moved to Manchester where he went to University. He represented England at the 2022 Commonwealth games, winning a silver medal. Jamie's main event is the 100m butterfly.
Emma Smithurst
Emma represented Great Britain at the 2009 European Short Course swimming championships, when just 18 years old.
Former Coaches:
Mark Rose
Mark was the first ever coach of Derventio Excel. Derventio Excel was formed in 2023 as a central elite squad, it originally consisted mainly of City of Derby’s top squad, with CoD also providing pool time. Mark's drive and energy helped set up this training programme, enabling the best swimmers in Derbyshire to train together. He left in 2009 to go to City of Manchester Aquatics. Mark has won multiple awards and is recognised as one of the best coaches in the UK.
Mel Marshall
Mel is one of the most successful coaches of all time. She was City of Derby's coach as Adam Peaty came through this programme, then both moved to Loughborough Performance Centre, and reaching worldwide success. Mel moved to Australia in 2024.
Andi Manley
Andi coached Derventio Excel when Molly Renshaw, Abbie Wood, Jamie Ingram and Imogen Clark were at the club. He moved to Canada to coach their National team for a year in 2015, then joining Loughborough. He is the Director of Swimming at Loughborough University. He coached Daniel Wiffen to the Olympic title at the Paris Olympics 2024 in 800m, Daniel is also a world record holder at this event, and World Champion at 800m and 1500m. Andi will be the Team England coach for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Jamie Main
Jamie took over from Andi Manley as head coach of Derventio Excel, and stayed with the club until 2022 when he joined Bath Performance Centre. Jamie has been selected to coach at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, and was one of the England team coaches at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2022. He was Jacob Whittle's coach when Jacob achieved phenomenal success as a teenager. In January 2025, Jamie took over as Head Coach at Repton.
Additional Life Members
Ethan Billinge
Barrie May
Beryl Mellor
Dean Wilwain
Gavin Murray
Claire Spink
Peter Spink
