Danielle Joyce spearheads GB Deaf swimmers to Euro success
The impressive Palace of Water Sports, Saransk, Russia was the host of the 11th European Deaf Swimming Championships in Saransk from 22-28 June. Great Britain had at least one swimmer in eight of the men’s finals and in all of the women’s final. Scottish swimmer, Danielle Joyce, once again impressed crowds and her fellow rivals.
There were a total of 12 countries taking part in what turned out to be a fantastic competition and experience for the Great Britain Deaf Swimming Team.
Great Britain, under new Coach Sam Chamberlain, took a young and inexperienced team to the championships. Seven of the twelve strong team were aged fifteen or under and five of those were swimming in a major competition for the first time.
Danielle Joyce was Great Britain’s most successful swimmer, and the most successful swimmer of the whole competition, winning gold in the 50m backstroke, and also dominating the 200m Backstroke winning Gold in a new world record.
Overall Great Britain finished fifth in the medals table an amazing performance against strong Eastern European teams, including a bronze medal for the 100m Freestyle relay team in a new British record, Emma Lees, Lucy Walkup, Danielle and Emily Noden.
In total, Great Britain had at least one swimmer in eight of the men’s finals and in all of the women’s finals. The GB Deaf Swimming Team currently have no national funding for the Europeans Championships, so it shows the strength of Deaf simming in Great Britain.
The Great Britain Team of Danielle Joyce, 17, Lucy Walkup, 17, Ciara Tappenden, 12, Jasmine Seamarks, 14, Kieran Holdbrook, 14, Matthew Oaten, 14, Polly Saines, 14, Oliver Kenny, 15, Luke Nisted, 17, Tom Baxter, 20, Sam Chamberlain 24, Emma Lees, 15, Emily Noden, 17, broke a total of eight individual British records, one British Relay Record, nine Welsh Records, 13 Scottish Records and 17 English Age Group Records.
The Team is now looking forward to this year's EFDS organised National Disability Short Course Swimming Championships in Manchester in November. Then it is the 2015 Deaf World Swimming Championships which will be staged in Texas, USA. It is hoped that GBDS's tremendous success in Russia will help to raise the profile of Deaf swimming and get more British Deaf swimmers involved.
