Performance highlights of the 2013 season

ASA British National Championships

The City of Newport achieved its highest ever number of swimmers competing at the prestigious ASA British National Championships in 2013. The championships are the benchmark for competitive swimming in Great Britain and therefore the qualifying standards are extremely difficult to achieve. The competition brings together the most talented swimmers from across the whole of Great Britain and Ireland plus guest International teams. The Club sent a team of 13 swimmers to compete over 10 days in Ponds Forge, Sheffield, and consisted of Cameron Brown, Matthew Jayne, Matthew Eke, Alex Griffiths, Tristan Cuer, Connor Acland, Jonathan Eke, Emily Peacock, Emily Whiting, Elizabeth Smith, Louise Bell, Erin Bryce and Cerys Coley. In addition Sam Hynd also qualified to compete, however was unable to attend as he was competing at the World Championships in Montreal. 

The championships were a great success for the club. In total our swimmers swam an amazing 24 personal best times and qualified for 8 finals, all of which came in the youth and senior age groups. The standout swims came from:

• Cameron Brown, who won the bronze medal in the youth 400 fc and also narrowly missed out on a second medal in the final of the 200m freestyle.
• Elizabeth Smith, who qualified for her first ever senior National final in the 50m fly, and also qualified for the final of the youth 100m fly.
• Jonathan Eke, who qualified for the senior finals of both the 100m and 400m freestyle in the S10 para-swimming catergory.
• Louise Bell, who qualified for her first ever National final in the youth 200m backstroke. 

Welsh National Championships

Performances at the Welsh National Championships were outstanding from City of Newport swimmers. Almost all who took part recorded new personal best performances and the squad of swimmers won an incredible combined total of 28 medals. This is a remarkable result when considering that our swimmers were competing against all of the most talented swimmers from across Wales. The most pleasing aspect was the number of different swimmers from Newport winning medals at this level, therefore showing a real increase in the strength in depth of national levels swimmers across our performance squads.

 International Honours and records

During the last year many City of Newport swimmers have received international honours. 

Alex Griffiths and Tristan Cuer were selected as part of the Wales squad for the UK schools games which competed in Sheffield in September. 

Cameron Brown was selected as part of the Welsh National Youth team, which competed at the Luxembourg International meet in April, where he performed at a very high level to win a gold, silver and bronze medal. 

Sam Hynd and Jonathan Eke were both been selected as part of the British para-swimming squad for 2013. Jonathan was selected for the World class podium potential squad, while Sam was selected to World Class Podium Squad. 

Sam went on to represent Great Britain at the World para-swimming championships in Montreal, Canada, in August 2013. Competing against the World’s best in the S10 category Sam swam a fantastic 400m freestyle final to win the silver medal. 

On the coaching front, City of Newport Head Coach Ross Nicholas was selected as Welsh National Elite Team Coach for the Celtic Tri-nations, in which Wales were victorious over Scotland and Ireland and also as head coach for the Welsh National Youth squad. Assistant Coach James Goodwin was selected as a coach for the Swim Wales Regional squad training camps. 

A huge congratulations to all of the swimmers, across all squads, who have performed at an exceptional level over the past season!!!!