Summer stars and European medallists set for fantastic four days of Winter Champs

Spectators are set for an early Christmas present this year, with the GoCardless Swim England National Winter Championships 2023 poised to serve up some sensational swimming.

After the announcement earlier in the year that the event would be extended to four days, there will be even more action on offer.

Para-swimming events have been integrated into the championships for the first time this year, providing more opportunity for para-athletes to experience national level quality racing.

Due to the increased number of events and length of the competition, there has been around 1,000 more entries this year compared to 2022.

There has been more than 3,600 entries this time around, with the action beginning on Thursday 14 December and running through to Sunday 17 December.

Amongst those entries are some stand-out names, including some of the shining stars of this year’s Summer Meet and recent European medal winners.

Loughborough Performance Centre swimmer, Abbie Wood, was the only British athlete to claim two individual gold medals at the European Short Course Championships earlier this month.

She is set to compete at Ponds Forge as she looks to continue her fine form, following on from her success in both the 400m and 200m Individual Medley events in Romania.

Exhilarating talents

Wood’s Loughborough teammates, Joe Litchfield and Freya Colbert, are also set to swim in Sheffield.

The latter of the pair collected two medals of her own at the Europeans and enjoyed success at last year’s National Winter Championships.

Imogen Clark, who will represent Derby Excel, won Great Britain’s final medal of the Europeans with bronze in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke – in addition to playing her part in the 4x50m Medley Relay team.

Adding to the excitement will be a number of youngsters who stood out at the National Summer Meet earlier in the 2023 event calendar.

One of those exhilarating talents is Belper Marlins swimmer Jaden Leo, who completed a hat-trick of breaststroke titles back in August.

Barnet Copthall’s Nadia Olszewska also returns to Ponds Forge, the venue which played host to her superb swim in the Women’s 1500m Freestyle at the Summer Meet.

Olszewska destroyed her personal best by more than half a minute on her way to the national title.

All of the sessions will be live streamed on the Swim England YouTube channel and the links can be found on the ‘Live Swimming’ page here.

The results of the GoCardless Swim England National Winter Championships 2023 can be found here and event photography will be taken by Will Johnston Photography.