The country’s top Para-Swimmers are headed to Glasgow for the British Para-Swimming International Meet for a chance to qualify for the IPC Swimming European Championships.
"Competition will be stepped up another level"
- Amy Marren
The four-day event, which takes place from 18 – 21 April, will see Double Paralympic Champion Ellie Simmonds returning to the pool for her first major competition of 2014.
Simmonds will be joined by Paralympic Champions Jessica-Jane Applegate, Jon Fox, Ollie Hynd and Josef Craig as well as world champions Amy Marren and Hannah Russell.
Races will be in a multi-classification programme and will see swimmers aiming to set best times to meet the qualification standard.
British Para-Swimming Head Coach Rob Greenwood joined the programme in September 2013 and he will be looking for swimmers to step up for the competition.
“We have a robust selection policy in place that will allow us to select our best athletes,” Greenwood said. “For those swimmers that are successful converting selection into season and life time best performances at the Europeans will be the key to our international success and focus going forward, as this is something we have been inconsistent with in the past.
“We achieved excellent results at the IPC Swimming World Championships last year, but history shows one year post a Paralympics this can sometimes be a false economy, we must continue to see growth and progression from our athletes in a whole manner of performance markers.”
Four-time World Champion Amy Marren commented: “It will be great to race at Tollcross in Glasgow because it’s a new venue for everyone.
“I’m looking forward to the British Para-Swimming International Meet but as always I am aiming for strong swims, possible good times and to reach the qualifying standards for selection.
“The meet will be very exciting this year as there seems to be a lot of interest, more so than previous years, so competition will be stepped up another level.
“It’s great to see that para-swimming appears to be making such an impact and that the profile of the sport is being escalated.”