British Champions head up European Junior Championships squad

9 Mar 2018

A 30-strong team, including six British Senior champions, will be battling it out at the European Junior Championships this summer.

The competition, which is the most prestigious in the 2018 calendar, will take place in Helsinki, Finland from July 4 to 8.

After several excellent performances at the British Swimming Championships in Edinburgh last weekend, the selectors faced some tough choices.

British Swimming’s Head of Elite Development Tim Jones said: “We are really pleased to be able to select a strong team of 30 swimmers to compete in Helsinki at the start of July. 2018 is an extremely important year for British Swimming; the second year of this Olympic cycle is one of our final opportunities to unearth some new talent ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Games.

“In amongst our team, we have been able to name some familiar and experienced junior swimmers who have already successfully begun the transition into the senior ranks. We hope to be able to identify some more hidden gems at this event that can become potent forces on the British Team for many years to come.

“With an extended period of preparation time between now the start of the meet, our focus now will be to ensure all of our team members swim season-best performances at these Championships.”

The six newly crowned British Champions in the squad are Leah Crisp (1,500m Freestyle); Jacob Peters (100m Butterfly); Freya Anderson (100m Freestyle); Tom Dean (200m and 400m IM); Lewis Burras (100m Freestyle) and Nicholas Pyle (50m Backstroke).

Dean will be defending his 200m IM European title he won in Netanya, Israel where he also picked up a silver in the longer 400m event, and where Ciara Schlosshan won a silver in the 200m butterfly. Freya Anderson and Emily Large are the reigning World Junior Champions for the 100m Freestyle and 200m Butterfly respectively.                 

The full squad is:

Daisy Anderson – Thanet

Freya Anderson – Ellesmere College

Rachel Anderson – Millfield School

Will Bell – City of Leicester

Tatiana Belonogoff – Guildford City

Lily Booker – City of Bristol

Lily Boseley – City of Sheffield    

Lewis Burras – Southport / Hamilton Aquatics  

Greg Butler – City of Derby    

Harry Constantine - Hatfield

Lauren Cox – City of Coventry

Leah Crisp – City of Leeds      

Tom Dean –Maidenhead

Angharad Evans – Ellesmere College        

Lewis Fraser – City of Swansea   

Archie Goodburn – Warrender Baths Club       

Jakob Goodman – Millfield School        

Nathan Hughes – Hatfield          

Charlie Hutchison – Ellesmere College

Emily Large – Newcastle Swim Team

Keanna Macinnes – Heart of Midlothian

Jasmine McCrea - Poole

Laura McNab – Team Bath Aquae Sulis

Jacob Peters – Poole   

Nick Pyle – Newcastle Swim Team

Charlotte Rigg – City of Birmingham

Katie Robertson – South Ayrshire

Ciara Schlosshan – City of Leeds       

Luke Turley – Hatfield    

Lexi Waller – Heart of Midlothian / Wantage