The newly named Bedford Swim Squad have finished 2023 with more success, this time at the National Short Course Championship at the Pond’s Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield.
Changing their name from Modernian Swimming Club has had no effect on some of the squad’s main characters, with a range of personal bests broken once again.
The Championships are the biggest English swimming meet of the winter months and with the UK’s best swimmers in attendance, it was a chance for Bedford’s usual suspects to stamp their authority on another calendar year.
Personal bests
Ryan Close, 15, so often towards the top of the rankings in a multitude of events, achieved five personal bests in five events at the Championships, including beating his own County Junior record in the 100m butterfly.
Eloise Cole, also 15, is another one of Bedford’s prospects in the pool, and she also broke her own Junior and Senior records in the 50m butterfly, finishing 5th in the 17 years final – two years above her own age group – with a time of 28.15.
That was the first of what would become four personal bests for Cole in another successful meet after an eventful 2023 which included winning gold in the World School Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
Read: Swimmer Cole wins big at World School Games in Rio de Janeiro
These were impressive performances in Sheffield given the meeting was an open age competition, and both Close and Cole competing at well above their own age groups, taking to the pool alongside 17 and 18-year olds.
They will look to build on their personal success in 2024, with competitions coming thick and fast in the new year.
Meanwhile, the rest of the club attended the Leicester Sharks Open Meet last weekend, with some extremely fast swims and medals galore, resulting in 52 club swimmers qualifying for the Bedfordshire ASA County Championships at the end of January.
