Harrogate District Swimming Club aces qualify for British and English Championships

The British Championships see the top 24 ranked swimmers in each age-group competing against each other, while the next 22 best swimmers compete in the English or home nations finals.

In total, the seven Harrogate swimmers will take part in a total of 24 events across the two championships.

The club’s qualifiers for the British Championships are the 13-year-old trio of Lois Child, Lily Stansfield and Nell Carter and 16-year-old Sophie Murray.

Meanwhile, Amelia Wright, 13, Alfie Charlton, 14 and Connie Milburn, 17, will represent Harrogate at the English Championships alongside Child and Carter.

“This is a hugely impressive return, illustrating the strength of our top squads, the success of our dedicated coaching, but most importantly the talent, determination and focus of our swimmers,” said Brian Charlton from Harrogate District Swimming Club.

"Some of these athletes started their performance journey only a few years ago in the depths of Covid-19 lockdowns and restriction, with no access to pools, limited return-to-training schedules, refurbishment, uncertainty and upheaval after upheaval.

“So, congratulations swimmers. We are incredibly proud of all of you. Good luck for your final block of training ahead of these competitions.

“We would like to say ‘thank you’ to our coaches for all their hard work and ‘thank you’ to the parents of our swimmers for all of the 4am starts.”