GB squad gain valuable experience at European Youth Championships

Great Britain’s young artistic swimmers gained valuable international experience as they created a new landmark at the recent European Youth Artistic Swimming Championships.

For the first time, Great Britain had a male swimmer – Maxwell Sewell – in their free combination team.

Sewell had to step up as one of the squad members tested positive for Covid on arrival at Montceau-les-Mines, France – and he played his part as they finished sixth in the final with a score of 75.1333.

The competition also saw a season best score for Florence Blinkhorn and Lily Halasi in the duet free competition.

They finished sixth in the preliminary round on 73.900 and then bettered that total in the final.

Their score of 76.6333 secured sixth spot and was the highest total achieved by a British pair in the event since Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe were competing in this age group.

Really pleased

The athletes also took part in the solo free, figures, mixed duet and team free events.

Karen Thorpe, Swim England’s artistic swimming manager, said there was a lot to learn from the championships.

She said: “We were really pleased with the points for all the routines and we felt they scored well.

“It was great to see Maxwell become the first male to swim with the free combination team and nice for Florence and Lily to achieve their best score of the year so far.

“The figures were also good and all the athletes scored generally higher than they have done previously at home.

“It’s been a valuable experience for all of them and has given us an insight on the areas where we need to work on in the new season to try and push ourselves towards the medal places.”

Results