SWIMMING: COPS reach four British Championship finals

City of Peterborough Swimming Club (COPS) had four finalists on the opening day of the 2016 British Summer Championships in Sheffield.
Chloe Hannam was fifth in the final.Chloe Hannam was fifth in the final.
Chloe Hannam was fifth in the final.

The championships are taking place across six days at Ponds Forge pool in Sheffield between July 26 and 31 and they are followed by the ASA English National Championships at the same venue between August 1-5.

The championships are part of the broader Performance Pathway Strategy aimed at increasing and supporting junior talent on the journey towards senior medal winning performances.

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Over 500 athletes will be travelling from all over the UK to attend this prestigious end-of-season event which is the epitome of high performance swimming.

In 2016 COPS have a total of 29 swimmers qualifying for 55 individual events and nine relays at the British Championships and 63 individual events at the English Nationals.

This year’s National Championships began with the open water event held at Rother Valley Country Park in which COPS had three swimmers taking part.

In the 5km event Aisling Ruff (18) once again showed her experience in a sprint to the finish with a time of 1:05.52 to take fifth place.

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In the Men’s 5km event Joshua Graves (19) finished in a time of 1:06.38 to take seventh place in his first National open water event.

Sixteen year-old Harry Whiteman finished in a time of 38:31to take 12th place in the 3km event.

On day one of the British Championships, COPS had eight swimmers on poolside swimming in nine events and they clocked up four final appearances.

Leading the finals charge were the swimmers in the women’s 50m breaststroke.

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Amelia Monaghan (14) finished equal eighth in her heat with a time of 34.68 but she couldn’t better that time in the final and she finished in 10th place.

Leah Roughan (17) set a new personal best (PB) time in her 50m breaststroke heat to qualify in joint fifth place for the final. She went on to secure fifth place again with another PB of 32.62.

Rebecca Burton (18) also set a new PB in her heat to finish in eighth place and repeated that performance in the final with another PB of 32.97 for eighth place.

COPS fourth finalist was 20 year-old Chloe Hannam and she set the fourth fastest time in the heats of the 400m individual medley and despite swimming 2.5 seconds faster in the final Hannam finished in fifth place with a time of 4:52.25.

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Also swimming in the 400m individual medley event was Mia Leech (14), who swam a time of 5:14.84 to take 17th place in her age group.

Jamie Scholes (16) had a busy day starting with the 400m freestyle event where his time of 4:12.05 saw him finish in 13th place.

Scholes then went on to finish in 13th place again in the 50m backstroke event with a time of 28.39.

Also swimming in the 400m freestyle was Myles Robinson-Young (14), who finished in a time of 4:26.02 to take 20th place while Matthew Gray (16) took 17th place in the 50m backstroke event with a time of 28.77.

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