Juniors enjoying international opportunities

13 Dec 2019

Great Britain’s junior swimmers are enjoying some fabulous overseas training and competition opportunities this December, putting in the hard yards in the countdown to Christmas.

On Monday a group of six talented females headed to Fuji, Japan, for the annual Japan Development Camp, which will see the youngsters undertake an immersive 10 day block of training, exposing them to the rigours of senior international swimming.

Amongst the group are World Junior 400m Individual Medley bronze medallist Michaella Glenister, Katie Shanahan, who won a staggering six medals at the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF), with no fewer than three of them gold, and her fellow multi-medallist Freya Colbert.

The group, which also includes European Junior Championships medallists Maisie Elliott and Mia Slevin, as well as Lola Davison, started their trip with a visit to the new Tokyo Aquatics Centre, which will play host to next summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games. Now though it’s into the pool for an intense training block alongside their Japanese peers.

A slightly larger group of 10 swimmers travelled to Canada earlier this week for the Ontario Junior International, which kicks off on Friday 13th December. Being contested at Toronto’s Pan Am Aquatics Centre, the annual event has been regularly used by British Swimming as a great development opportunity, with the likes of Freya Anderson and Joe Litchfield having competed here in the past few years on the way to senior success.

Amongst the 2019 cohort are European Junior medallists, Honey Osrin, Ed Mildred, Matt Richards and Jacob Whittle, who will hope to work on both race-craft and skills, as well as winning medals.

Of the importance of the final two trips of 2019, British Swimming’s Head of Elite Development, Tim Jones, said:

“We are always looking for innovative ways of developing some of our best junior talent. The competition in Canada and training camp in Japan both come with a significant amount of challenge and discomfort, but will also be great opportunities to embed some of the skills we know are essential in successful senior athletes.”

Full 2019 Ontario Junior International squad:

Kyle Booth
Charlie Brown
Sophie Freeman
Katie Goodburn
Medi Harris
Edward Mildred
Honey Osrin
Matt Richards
Tamryn Van Selm
Jacob Whittle