Darren Mew

Sport/Event >
Swimming – breaststroke. Senior Performance Squad.

Date and Place of Birth >
1979, Newport, Isle of Wight

Coached by >
Kim Swanwick

Clubs >
Team Bath Swimming Club

Occupation >
Swimmer

Biography >
Darren has established himself as one of Britain’s top swimmers, competing at the last two Olympic Games, four long course World Championships and the last three Commonwealths Games.

Winning selection for England and Great Britain has been tough enough as both have a plethora of top breaststrokers in their ranks. As well as Darren, England alone could call on the services of fellow breaststrokers Chris Cook, James Gibson and Adam Whitehead at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Darren missed much of his pre-season training for 2005 because he needed an elbow operation just after the Athens 2004 Olympics. After recovering from that, early in 2005 he broke his right hand. But he still managed to qualify for the 2005 World Championships and the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealths.

He struck silver in the 50m breaststroke at Melbourne 2006 – his fourth Commonwealth Games medal. The following month he won both the 50m and 100m breaststroke titles at the British Championships. Darren has held numerous British and Commonwealth records.

Competitive Record >
Commonwealth Games: silver 4×100m medley relay, bronze 100m breaststroke – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1998

World Championships: 13th 100m breaststroke – Christchurch, New Zealand, 1998

European SC Championships: 4th 100m breaststroke – Sheffield, 1998

Olympic Games: 14th 100m breaststroke – Sydney 2000 World SC Championships: bronze 4×100m medley relay – Athens, 2000

European SC Championships: bronze 100m breaststroke, 4th 50m breaststroke, 4th 4×50m medley relay – Valencia, 2000

World Championships: 7th 50m breaststroke, 7th 100m breaststroke – Fukuoka, 2001

European SC Championships: bronze 50m breaststroke, 4th 100m breaststroke – Antwerp, 2001

Commonwealth Games: bronze 50m breaststroke, 4th 100m breaststroke – Manchester, July 2002

World Championships: 5th 50m breaststroke, 7th 100m breaststroke – Barcelona, 2003

European SC Championships: bronze 100m breaststroke, 4th 50m breaststroke, 7th 4×50m medley relay – Dublin, 2003

Olympic Games: 7th 100m breaststroke – Athens, August 2004

World Championships: 29th 100m breaststroke – Montreal, July 2005

Commonwealth Games: silver 50m breaststroke, 4th 100m breaststroke – Melbourne, March 2006

British Championships: gold 50m breaststroke, gold 100m breaststroke – Sheffield, April 2006