Homeless City of Peterborough Swimming Club defy the odds again to reach a National Final and how you can help them get there

The successful COPs squad at the East Midlands Area Final.

It’s a great achievement for the elite club who will be the smallest clubs at the finals next month.

COPs reached the national stage for the 10th time in 14 years after winning the East Midlands Region Area Finals competition.

It’s a stunning success considering the club lost their home base at the Regional Pool in the city.

Head coach Ben Negus said: “On the night our team came together and outperformed expectations. On paper we should have finished second or a close third, but the outstanding team morale and support meant top performances on the night just kept coming and coming and in the end the unity lead to a big win.

"The coaching team are really proud of the team’s efforts. It’s the first time in a while we’ve shown dominance by numbers and every swimmer played their part.‘We go in to the National final ranked 9th out of the 10 competing clubs. We are the ‘small club’ in a field of private schools and super clubs with over 1000 members, compared to our 180 members.

"The goal in the national final will be to let some individual performances shine, but to support this with relay depth. We hope to pull a couple of individual victories for the first time in NASL final history and do Peterborough and our region proud.”

Individually Josh Sackree’s 1.04.37 100m breaststroke swim at SwimEngland’s Winter Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield broke the East Region record previously held by Olympian Roberto Pavoni.

Sackree joins seven other COPS members on the records boards.

And Belle Cameron made the 200m breaststroke final at the Winter Nationals, finishing in a creditable ninth place. She also broke the 50m and 100m breaststroke county records.

FUNDS REQUEST

COPs are fundraising to book a coach for the National Finals, which are expected to take place in Cardiff at the end of next month, so the swimmers, coaching team and parents can travel together.

Anyone able to help can email [email protected].