Third Exeter swimmer qualifies for Olympic trials

Only a week has passed since Exeter City Swimming Club announced the news that two of its swimmers had qualified for Olympic trials next month in Glasgow. However, now the club have more to celebrate with the addition of a third swimmer obtaining qualification.

Seventeen-year-old Tom Downs made the journey to Crawley over the weekend to compete in one of only a handful of remaining competitions left that allow the opportunity to qualify for the trials in Glasgow.

Tom pulled off a superb swim in the 200m fly to obtain a time of 2:07.89.

He will now join his team mates, Dominic Wooldridge and Liam White, who qualified in the butterfly and backstroke in Wycombe last weekend, on a week long training camp to Malta where they will intensify their training, under the watchful eye of head coach Jo John, to make themselves ready to fly up to Glasgow on April the 11th.

Jo John had nothing but praise for her swimmers: "When you look at it, its quite an amazing achievement. All three swimmers have worked incredibly hard, week-in, week-out with very basic facilites, no 50m pool to train in and back and forth between the pools we are able to gain access to.

"To not just get one swimmer to Olympic trials but three, it just speaks volumes about the amount of talent that Exeter as a whole has to offer, and with the right nurturing at a grass roots level together with investment in the future of this city's sporting facilities, there is no reason why there can't be more Exonians heading to Olympic trials in 2020."