Chesterfield swimmers make a big splash at British Championships

Three members of Chesterfield Swimming Club took on the best in the country at the British Summer Championships in Glasgow.
Successful swimmers Jack Blair, Amber Downham and Chloe Stennett.Successful swimmers Jack Blair, Amber Downham and Chloe Stennett.
Successful swimmers Jack Blair, Amber Downham and Chloe Stennett.

Amber Downham, Chloe Stennett and Jack Blair qualified for the championships by achieving some fine times.

And they delighted the club’s head coach, Mark Tanner, who said: “I couldn’t be more proud of these three swimmers.

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“Their commitment and the standards they set themselves in training are what got them to qualify for this event.”

Fourteen-year-old Downham qualified for no fewer than 12 races at the prestigious championships, which is more than any other swimmer.

For someone as young as she is, it was a remarkable achievement and underlined her all-round versatility because she competed in four differrent strokes, namely freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke.

Club captain Stennett, 16, has not only had a busy season of swimming but has also had to fit in time to revise foe her GCSEs and to carry out her duties as a lifeguard and coach to younger swimmers at the club. Even so, she qualified for four races at 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m.

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Blair, 21, has battled through the season and trained hard to achieve his qualification, maintaining high standards.

He is also training to be a coach, passing on his skills and knowledge to younger members of the club, and qualified for events at Glasgow at 50m and 200m.