Swim England Artistic Swimming

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Daniella Lloyd named as reserve to Olympic duet hopefuls Kate and Isabelle

The captain of Great Britain’s artistic swimming senior team has been named as a reserve to Olympic duet hopefuls Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe.

Daniella Lloyd is working with the duet and their coach Paola Basso as they build up their schedule ahead of aiming to qualify for the rearranged Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

She has been included to ensure training would be able to continue if either of the duet were injured in the run-up to the qualification event.

The three have been competing in the sport together for a number of years and they were all part of the British team which won silver medals in the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series in Paris in both 2019 and 2020.

Lloyd said: “I was delighted to be added to the duet squad.

“I am relishing the opportunity to work with Kate and Izzy. We have known each other for so many years and feel that we have a good balanced relationship between friendship and competitiveness.

“It is fantastic to be working with Paola as a coach. She has already helped me with my technical skills and I am excited to work back with the team during camps to help push and develop them.”

Karen Thorpe, Swim England Artistic Swimming Manager, said the selection of City of Bristol Aquatics Artistic Swimming member Lloyd has given the duet a boost.

She said: “We have been so careful with the duet and what we do so we can continue training over this time especially with qualifiers round the corner.

Very positive

“We wanted to add a third member in case one picked up an injury or became ill and so the other could keep on training.

“Adding Daniella to the small team has given them a lift. They have all been swimming together since they were 10 through club and international competitions, so we have got someone they know which is good.

“We told the duet in July what we were going to do and had a trials process in October. There were six athletes from the existing senior squad going for that spot and now it’s a case of Daniella getting up to speed.

“It’s going to be great for her. She is getting stronger day by day, improving day by day and she is going to strengthen the senior team as well.

“Both Kate and Izzy have found it very positive that someone else is there with them. Daniella is helping to push them on to achieve great things.”

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