Five medals and two British records have made the journey from
Antwerp to Plymouth courtesy of three Plymouth College athletes who
won a magnificent one gold, three silvers and one bronze between
them at the European Junior Championships. The three are part
of the internationally-celebrated swimming scholarship programme
run and managed by Plymouth College and Plymouth Leander
Swimming.
Top of the tree was Deputy Head Boy, Joe Patching, European Junior Champion over 200m Backstroke. His breathtaking performance saw him smash through the two-minute barrier for the first time taking gold in 1:59.45.
"I'm absolutely speechless," said Patching. "I've broken the two minute barrier which was my primary goal, but my second goal was to win the gold for the team and I managed to do both. The Italian was coming back hard on me in the last 50 but I just thought to myself 'This is my day, I'm not going to let him pass' and I swum through it. Now I get to stand on the podium and hear our national anthem - I'm so happy and so relieved."
Joe was to also claim bronze as he led out the Great Britain 400m Medley relay on the final day of the meet, with earlier performances also seeing him take fourth in the 100m Backstroke (56.04).
Ben Proud's debut Great Britain selection saw him take silver in
the 50m Butterfly in a new British Age Record of 24.11, whilst his
fourth place in the 50m Freestyle was agonisingly close to the
medals but again in a British Age record of 22.70. Ironically, both
of Ben Proud's records were formerly in possession of two of his
Plymouth Leander training partners prior to Antwerp - Antony James
in the 50m Butterfly and James Burden in the 50m Freestyle.
Two medals were the order of the day for Grace Vertigans as she
helped Britain power their way to silver in the 400m Freestyle
relay and bronze (swimming the Butterfly leg) in the 400m Medley
relay. Grace was one of the busiest swimmers on the British team,
claiming fifth in 100m Freestyle (56.08) and a further fifth in the
50m Freestyle (25.93). Grace was also to swim a best time to make
the semi-finals of both the 100m Butterfly (1:02.11) and 50m
Butterfly (28.02).
All three athletes have gone straight back into the training pool
in preparation for their last meet of the season, the British
National Youth Championships in Sheffield 17th - 21st July.
