THE “Rubies” City of Bradford Artistic Swimming team were named as UK Champions in the Division One 15 & under age group in the Swim England Combo Cup at the Olympic Aquatic Centre last weekend.

Hot on the heels of their Yorkshire Championships victory two weeks ago, the team of eight athletes, whose club recently moved from Halifax to Bradford, were awarded an impressive 55 points by the 15 judges for their routine from the musical “Six”, competing in a division of 21 teams from around the country.

The team, consisting of Edie Caris, Rachel Edwards, Chloe Foster, Katherine Gareis, Poppy Heptinstall, Ellen Hewitt, Lily Priestley and Chloe Shillito, had the crowd clapping along and scored Bradford 16.5 for execution, 22 for artistic impression and 16.5 for difficulty.

Coach Joelle Carlespie said “I’m really proud of them. This is our third time winning the gold in this age category and after the years that they’ve had, when we’ve all been meeting on Zoom during the pandemic, they just continued to work hard out of the water as well as in the pool.

“We’ve had it especially tough at our club because our pool in Halifax was closed down and we’ve been moving between smaller pools for the past year. They’re amazing together, so they really deserve this.”

Swimmer Caris (15), who was also part of the gold-winning team in the last Combo Cup competition, which took place at the National Aquatic Centre in 2019, said: “The atmosphere in this pool is thrilling, there’s so much adrenaline and just good vibes.”

Team captain Shillito (13) said: “It has been hard training without a home pool for our club, but our coaches have supported us so well.

“We can’t wait to move to Shipley Pool next week now and make that our base from now on, as part of the City of Bradford Swimming Club.”

The club had five teams competing in various divisions and age categories at the Olympic Aquatic Centre last weekend, and from a field of 36 clubs, City of Bradford were ranked 10th in the overall league table.

Head coach Charlotte Hughes said: “Having been a swimmer at City of Bradford myself, I founded the Synchronised Swimming Club in Halifax 22 years ago.

“By early 2020, we were in a very strong position with over 100 members, including a Team GB swimmer and several training for the GB Development squad.

“It has been very disruptive for the club over the past few years and as older swimmers become too old to compete in the junior competitions, we know we need to rebuild our club and show we can move up the national rankings once again.

“We are very excited to be doing that with the support of the City of Bradford Swimming Club.”