National Championships, 2014

Rebecca, James, Georgia, Dominic, Emily, Liam, Millie, Tom

Nine swimmers from Exeter have qualified for the national championships, which will be taking place in Sheffield over the coming weeks. Competition will be ferocious against what are probably the best 25 swimmers in Britain for each event.

As the youngest of Exeter’s contingent, these are the first national championships for Emily Eveling (12), who has achieved qualifying times in 6 events: 100m and 200m freestyle, 100m and 200m backstroke, and 200m and 400m individual medley. She will be joined by Millie Price (15), who will be competing in 50m breaststroke, and by Georgia Cotterill (15) and Rebecca Anderson (16) in the 50m backstroke.

Tom Downs (15) set his national qualifying time for 200m butterfly while winning the South West regional championships in May. James Wamsley (15) will be hoping to improve on a brilliant top-10 finish in last year’s 100m breaststroke, while Dominic Wooldridge (18) has qualifying times for 50m, 100m and 200m in his specialist stroke, butterfly. Liam White (15) has qualified for 50m backstroke, and George Fearnley (18) for 100m butterfly.

It is a superb achievement to have so many swimmers competing at national level. Everyone at the club is proud of them and hopeful of some fantastic performances in Sheffield.  The club also has four swimmers who were less than a second off national times as well as some excellent young swimmers coming through. All in all, prospects for the future are very bright.