University of Bath student swimmers selected for senior Great Britain debuts at European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade
University of Bath students Joshua Gammon and Jack Skerry will both make their Great Britain senior long-course swimming debuts in June after being selected for the European Aquatics Championships.
They are joined in a youthful 10-strong Aquatics GB squad by Bath Performance Centre duo Ed Mildred and Matthew Ward, both coached by David McNulty at the Team Bath Sports Training Village.
Santander Sporting Scholar Leah Crisp will also be heading to Belgrade to contest the marathon swimming 10km events as part of the preparations for her Olympic Games debut at Paris 2024 this summer.
Sports Performance student Gammon, a member of the University of Bath Swimming Club and coached by Andrei Vorontsov, earned his call-up after successfully defending his 200m butterfly title at the recent Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in London. He also won 100m butterfly silver and has been a multiple medallist while representing the University at BUCS championships.
Computer Science student Skerry, who is supported by a US Foundation Scholarship, joined the Bath Performance Centre training group in September and placed sixth in both the 100m and 200m backstroke at the Aquatics GB Championships.
Training partner Ward, who won four medals on his last visit to Belgrade for the 2023 European Junior Championships, is also a backstroke specialist and set a new age-group record while finishing fourth over 100m in London.
Mildred is the only member of the pool squad with a senior GB cap and won mixed 4x100m freestyle relay silver and men’s 4x100m freestyle relay bronze at the last European Championships in Rome two years ago.
Aquatics GB Head of Performance Development Alan Lynn said: “All 10 of the athletes selected for the pool swimming team produced some brilliant performances at the recent Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and showed they could deliver big swims when it mattered, in a packed and intense competition environment.
“We know each swimmer will be looking to build on those swims to progress their experience and target season’s bests in Belgrade, when they will come up against a host of strong international athletes including plenty who will be building towards the Olympics a few weeks down the line.”
The marathon swimming will take place on 12th June, with the pool-based competition running from 17th to 23rd June.
To find out more about combining study and swimming at the University of Bath, visit teambath.com/swimming.
Pictured top: (From left) Joshua Gammon, Ed Mildred, Jack Skerry and Matthew Ward at the Team Bath Sports Training Village.
