Strong British swimming contingent named for Europeans
The British Gas GBR Para-Swimming Team has been named for the 2014 IPC Swimming European Championships in Eindhoven.
Double Paralympic Champion Ellie Simmonds will lead the team into action after qualifying in three events at the British Para-Swimming International Meet.
Simmonds will be competing in her third European Championships and will be eager to retain her two titles in the S6 400m Freestyle and SM6 200m Individual Medley. She said:
“I’m very excited to represent Great Britain at my third Europeans and go back to the pool at Eindhoven which we had our World Championships at in 2010. My 50m Free personal best still stands from that competition. We’ve got an amazing team going as well so I’m really looking forward to this summer. We’ve got some amazing athletes on the team this year. Steph Slater swam a world record in the 100m Fly in Glasgow and she looked incredible in the pool. And then we’ve got youngsters like Amy Marren who is a four-time World Champion and Alice Tai who has qualified for her first major competition. It’s great to see the youngsters coming through for the future but also it’s nice to have the legends like Sascha Kindred and James Crisp still representing the team and competing for Great Britain.”
The world record holder is joined by world champion Steph Slater and Paralympic Champions Jon Fox and Ollie Hynd and multi-Paralympic medallist Sascha Kindred, who will be going to his sixth Europeans.
Slater, who broke the S8 100m Butterfly world record in Glasgow, qualified in five events of the six she swam during the British Para-Swimming International Meet and showed she has begun to make her mark on the international circuit. Slater said:
“It’s an amazing feeling to have been selected for my first European Championships. Hopefully I can build on what I did at Worlds last year. I’m really happy with how everything went this week. I’ve never done two competitions back-to-back before so having to do a split taper has been interesting and obviously it has paid off here so I’m really happy. I got five out of my six qualification times so maybe I’ll swim all of them in Eindhoven but we’ll see what works with the schedule.”
Four-time World Champion Amy Marren secured her place on the team for her first European Championships and world medallists Andrew Mullen and Hannah Russell will return to the Europeans eager to add to their medal tallies.
Head Coach Rob Greenwood said:
“We have selected a strong team of athletes that have got a good mix of youth and experience. It’s good to see the likes of Sascha Kindred and Matthew Walker going to their sixth and fourth European Championships respectively while we have a number of athletes are attending their first Europeans. This meet is about gaining experience and learning ahead of Rio so we can see where our athletes are and how we can continue to improve. Some of our athletes’ main rivals are European so it will be a good opportunity to put in good races and see where they are at against some of the best athletes in the world.”
The British Gas GBR Para-Swimming Team consists of:
Jack Bridge
Josef Craig
James Crisp
Jonathan Fox
Thomas Hamer
Craig Harris
Kahoru Harazawa
James Hollis
Oliver Hynd
Sascha Kindred
Aaron Moores
Andrew Mullen
Scott Quin
Jack Thomas
Matthew Walker
Robert Welbourn
Matthew Wylie
Gemma Almond
Jessica-Jane Applegate
Claire Cashmore
Chloe Davies
Charlotte Henshaw
Eleni Papadopoulos
Nicole Lough
Amy Marren
Stephanie Millward
Susie Rodgers
Hannah Russell
Eleanor Simmonds
Stephanie Slater
Alice Tai
Coaches selected for the team are:
Graeme Smith
Dave Evitts
Billy Pye
Steve Bayley
Danny Thompson
Rob Aubry
