DiSE swimmers impress at Linkoping Water Games

Swim England’s DiSE team completed the second of their overseas camps in Sweden with a 30-strong swimming team picking up 13 medals at the Linkoping Water Games.

The group impressed across the three days at the stunning Eriksdalsbadet pool, gaining valuable experience of planning, competing and reflecting on their race processes in a brand-new environment.

The experience will help them towards their major events of the year and helped a number of them get some early times on the board to go towards their rankings for the Summer National events.

Twelve of the squad even came away with prize money from the competition – awarded to the top four swimmers in each event – alongside a host of strong swims in Southern Sweden.

Two of those came away with gold and new meet records to their name in Charles Rounce and Sophie Murray.

They both put in outstanding performances in the 200m Butterfly events to take just under a second off each of the previous best times.

First, Rounce led from start to finish on his way to a time of 2:06.41 in the men’s event. The Leamington Spa swimmer pulled clear in the closing stages to clock in 0.90 ahead of the home clubs Lucas Humling to become the first swimmer to go under 2:07.00 at the meet.

England’s Raheel Mahmood touched home in third to claim the second of his top four finishes of the week after narrowly missing out on the podium in the 200m Individual Medley to teammate Dominic Simpson.

On the women’s side, Murray took more than three and a half seconds off her entry time to top the standings in Sweden.

Like Rounce, she beat the previous meet record by just under a second with a 2:18.35 as she dominated the rest of the field.

Four other English swimmers made that final with Eve Horton rounding out the podium in third with Emily Toms taking the final prize money position in fourth.

Evie O’Halleron-Hutchinson added a fifth place to her two silvers in the 200m and 400m Individual Medley, whilst Isabella Shering finished in seventh.

You can catch up on all the results from the Linkoping Water Games on the swimify website, as well as being able to watch back the live streams from each session.

‘Special camaraderie of the group’

Speaking on the team’s trip to Sweden, Team Manager Lily Bond said that the athletes represented themselves and the nation proudly.

She said: “It was a privilege to support our athletes as Team Manager for the Linkoping Water Games.

“We were welcomed wholeheartedly by LASS (Linköpings Allmänna Simsällskap) and it was a fantastic event which gave our swimmers so many learning opportunities both in and out the pool.

“It was an invaluable experience for the athletes who were able to incorporate their learnings from the DiSE programme into an unfamiliar international competition environment.

“The experience also provided the group with valuable insights into both the similarities and differences amongst swimming in Sweden and England.

“During the competition, it was truly special to witness the camaraderie of the group, which caught the attention of other teams, who praised how passionately our athletes supported one another, cheering on teammates during races and embodying the true Team England spirit.”

You can see all of Team England’s prize winners below and you can find out more about the Swim England DiSE programme here.