Nine national qualifiers delight City of Bradford (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Nine national qualifiers delight City of Bradford

6:20pm Wednesday 24th June 2009 in Sport By Sports Desk

With the time fast approaching for National Age and Youth Swimming Championships, City of Bradford members competed in Leeds on what was the final weekend for qualification times.

In the individual events they had to be content with a slew of personal bests and just a couple of medals.

Nikki Chatburn was the highest ranked of City’s swimmers with a silver medal in the 1500 metre freestyle. She was also sixth in the 400m.

Also swimming as a 13-year-old, Lydia Biddiscombe placed third in the 200m backstroke to claim City’s only other medal and had a best time in the 100m freestyle.

Fifth-place finishes went to Sam Donohoe in the 14 years 100m freestyle and 200m backstroke. He also placed seventh and eighth in the 200m individual medley and 400m freestyle respectively.

The girls 11-13 years 4x100m medley team, which consisted of Biddiscombe, Chatburn, Lauren Sharp and Jessica Foulds, finished fifth in 4min 55.27sec.

However, good news came their way when they had confirmation that they had been accepted for the National Age Group Championships in the 4x200m freestyle.

This brings City’s total of national qualifiers to nine – the highest for some years, which has delighted head coach Andy Pearce of Bradford Council’s Leisure Services Coaching and Training Scheme.