Titans Swimmer Chloe Golding Celebrates Great Britain Selection

Titans Swimmer Chloe Golding is celebrating after being selected to represent Great Britain at the European Junior Championships in the Netherlands in mid-July following her superb results at the recent British Championships.

The qualifying times required just to take part are extremely hard to achieve and the competition has added importance as it acts as the main selection meet for international competitions later in the year - in 2014 being used for the Commonwealth and European Junior Championships selection as well. Because of its importance, the five-day competition is one of the most vital events for many of the swimmers taking part, young or old.

Golding had five other team-mates competing with her - three still at Ellesmere College and two students who have gone on to study at the University of Bath - including Chris Walker-Hebborn, who retained his 100m backstroke title and added the 50m backstroke title by beating Liam Tancock into second place in both. The second Bath student was Calum Jarvis, who had already been selected, and he broke the Welsh record in the 100m freestyle.

With Golding qualifying for five events in her very first full British Championships she was going to be under immense pressure from the word go, but she did it in her usual confident styl,e even though she was now mixing it with many of her British swimming heroes and heroines.

Golding used the first event - the 400m individual medley - to acclimatise to Glasgow's Commonwealth Tollcross 50m International Pool. Swimming steadily in the heats, she made it through to the finals where she improved her time to finish with 5:08.58 in seventh place.

Golding's next event was one of her favourites - the 100m backstroke - and she recorded 1:04.18, making the finals with ease. Golding did this in style once again with the finals on the following day and finished a close second with an improved time of 1:03.67 and - having made the standard previously for eligibility for selection to the European Juniors - put herself well in the frame for final selection, which has now been confirmed.

On the fourth day Golding competed in the 200m backstroke heats, finishing with 2:18.66 and again making the following finals, seeded in sixth place. In the evening's finals Golding improved her time and placed fifth in an exciting swim with 2:17.99.

On the penultimate day Golding competed in the 50m backstroke heats and, once again, qualified for the finals on the sixth and last day, improving her time with a personal best of 30.83 to finish in fifth place, with only eight tenths of a second covering the top five swimmers.

Head Coach Alan Bircher said "News arrived earlier last week confirming her selection to the European Junior Championships, which is a true reward for all the hard work and miles Chloe puts in morning and night at Ellesmere College."

28th April 2014  Back to News