National championships beckon Exeter swimmers

Four members of Exeter City Swimming Club have successfully attained qualifying times for the British Short Course National Championships being held in Sheffield on December 17th.

Dominic Wooldridge (20), Liam White (17), Katie Townsend (15) and Warren Barrett (28) all gained their qualifying times at the Exeter City Swimming Club level 2 meet held at Plymouth Aquatics Centre at the beginning of October.

It is the first time the ASA have held a short course National championship in nearly seven years and competition to secure qualifying times was strong from all clubs across the South West. With Dominic qualifying for the British Championships (in which he went on to win the 50m and 100m Butterfly) and Dominic, Liam and Katie also qualifying for the annual English Nationals earlier this year alongside 11 other ECSC swimmers shows that competing from the Exeter Club in Nationals is becoming a regular occurrence and clearly shows that Exeter is emerging as one of the top tier clubs in the country. Exeter Swimming also produced World Champion Liam Tancock, who grew up in Exeter, training with the club from an early age.

Exeter swimmers will have two more chances to qualify for the short course nationals at regional meets at Millfield ( 7-9th November) and Bristol (21-22nd November) and it is expected that more swimmers will join the four in making the trip to Sheffield this December.

Qualifying Results
Dominic Wooldridge - 50m (23.35), 100m (55.28), 200m (2:04.70) Butterfly
Liam White - 50m (26.84), 200m Backstroke (2:05.20)
Katie Townsend - 50m Backstroke (30.09)
Warren Barrett - 50m Butterfly (25.58)

Photo: L to R Dominic Wooldridge, Liam White, Katie Townsend