British Championships and Olympic Trials Success!

Ian Pollock

Between 2nd-7th April, Aquatics GB (formerly known as British Swimming) hosted the British Championships and Olympic Trials in The London Aquatics Centre, in London’s 2012 Olympic Park. The competition incorporated the annual championships but in this Olympic year, also served as the qualification event for this Summer’s Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games and the European Junior Swimming Championships.

In total, a remarkable 23 swimmers represented Repton at this event including 17 pupils, 4 club members and 2 of our overseas distance members. Just 6 weeks after the club completed their first overseas training camp in Dubai and 4 weeks after Repton competed in its first Arena League Final in Cardiff, Repton was well represented across all the 6 days of competition in London which included heats and finals on each day. Repton swimmers achieved a superb total of:

31 Finals
32 Personal Best Times
2 Medals

17 year old Eva Okaro, still only in Year 12, won Silver in the Women’s 50m Freestyle and Silver in the Women’s 100m Freestyle, becoming the second fastest woman in Britain, behind one of Britain’s leading swimmers, Anna Hopkin. Eva is now in contention for a place in the Women’s 4x100 Freestyle Relay team for the Olympics. Already a Junior International swimmer and medallist, Eva is coached by Repton's Director of Swimming, Ash Morris, and recently was part of the British European Junior Team, the GB Team that travelled to Ontario, Canada, and was part of Repton's club team that placed 4th in the National Arena League Final.

Megan Neave, swimming in the 100m Backstroke Multi-classification event, achieved a Personal Best time of 1.07.88 which gave her the Nomination Time for the Paralympic Games this Summer. She now has to wait to see if she is selected! This was a terrific achievement for 21 year old Megan, one of Repton earliest members, who is coached by Assistant Performance Coach Marcus Birmingham.

Further congratulations are also due to 13 year old and Year 9 pupil Austyn Manley, who was one of the youngest competitors in the whole event, for securing a time of 2.07.62 in the 200m Backstroke, which broke the British National Age Group Record. Austyn has a bright future ahead and a huge well done go to him and his Coach, Repton's Performance Coach, Craig Prime.

A full set of results from the Championships can be found here: Aquatics GB Swimming Championships - SPORTSYSTEMS Meet Results Service

Full coverage of the event split by sessions, streamed live during the competition through the BBC Red Button, Channel 4 and You Tube, can be found here: Speedo Aquatics GB Swimming Championships 2024 - YouTube

Also this Easter, Repton members and pupils Danielle, Ethan and Alyssa Gardiner represented the Turks and Caicos islands at the CARIFTA Games in the Bahamas. Repton were also awarded top club at the Derby Excel April Level 1 Meet. It is now onwards into the East Midlands Regional Championships at the end of April and beginning of May!

Director of Swimming, Ash Morris: “This has been a remarkable period of competitions for us with some top performances at the Dubai Open, Arena League National Final, Sheffield Meets and now the Aquatics GB Championships. We are developing our swimmers to be ‘Unbounded Performers’ when it comes to the competition arena and we are proud with how they are embracing challenges and prepared to take on the best swimmers in the country.”

Huge congratulations to the following swimmers who qualified and competed at the Aquatics GB Championships:

(*Qualifed for a final)

Annabel Crees*

Austyn Manley (British Age Group Record 200m Backstroke)

Cameron Jamieson*

Connie Palmer

Ellie Broughton*

Eva Okaro* (British Silver medal 50m Freestyle and 100m Freestyle)

Hannah Capron*

Hannah Hodgkiss

Harriet Oxley

Holly Marshall*