Barnet Copthall Swimming Club has always set the highest possible standards for it's athletes and prides itself on encouraging swimmers to be their best every day. Since establishing in 1978, Barnet Copthall's swimmers have competed at national and international level, winning medals for Great Britain and England at European and World Championships, Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Fast forward to 2022, and the success stories keep coming!

At the 2022 European Championships held in Ostia, Rome, Fleur Lewis competed in the 5km and 10km events on subsequent days, something of which is extremely difficult to do. Competing against some of the best swimmer's in Europe, Fleur managed to come in 17th and 21st place respectively, a remarkable accomplishment. Since she started swimming lessons at Finchley Lido with GLL, Fleur transferred to the GLL training scheme at Barnet Copthall and has continued to swim with the programme, going on to compete at the European Juniors Championships in Kazan, Russia in 2019. She won two silver medals at the 2022 British Summer Championships in the 1500 free and 800 free disciplines and was selected to join the GB Senior team and Swim England's distance initiative programme. Fleur moved to the Performance Swimming Centre at Loughborough University in September 2022 to continue with her swimming and academics. Fleur is a true inspiration to all Barnet Copthall Swimmers, and we all look forward to see how far she can go.

For Jake Tomkins, one gold medal isn't enough. Jake specialises in distance events, and managed to win two gold medals at the British Summer Championships in July 2022. This is a true testament to Jake's hard work and dedication, swimming eight times a week and completing 3-5 land training sessions every week in order to achieve this level of success. Jake was also selected to join Swim England's distance initiative programme, where he will attend online webinars on a full variety of subjects such as nutrition, recovery, land work, injury prevention, and rehabilitation exercises delivered by GB swimming medical and sports science staff. Well done Jake!

Harvey Quiddington, who achieved 7th place in the 200 breaststroke at the British Summer Championships secured a swimming scholarship in the United States of America at Loyola University, New Orleans. Harvey started swimming at Barnet Copthall at a very young age and quickly progressed through the programme to compete at national level and achieve final positions at the British Championships. Harvey wished to continue his swimming when he went to University and applied for scholarships to universities in America, eventually choosing Loyola as they offered him a great swimming programme along with the academic courses he required to study History and Pre Law. Fantastic achievement Harvey!

A notable mention must also go to Tsala Berholt who at the age of 16, won a gold medal at the English Summer Championships in the 1500m free discipline, a brilliant accomplishment. Tsala began swimming at Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre and has impressed the coaches at Barnet Copthall with her remarkable attitude to be the best possible swimmer that she can possibly be. Consequently, Tsala was selected to join Swim England's National Youth Development Programme in 2022. Well done Tsala!

Yassin Selmani and Malaika Onobrauche also won silver medals in the 800 free and 50 fly disciplines respectively at the English Summer Championships to cap off a tremendous achievement by the Barnet Copthall Swimming Club, with twelve top ten places. Both Yassin and Malaika were also selected to join Swim England's National Youth Development Programme, with Malaika also selected to represent her Inter Counties team; Middlesex. 

A special mention must also go out to Jess Arundale, who won a Bronze medal at the Open Water Championships held in August 2022, after winning a Bronze medal at the British Championships a month before. In addition, Dante Sinnott achieved 6th position at the Open Water National Championships and was selected to join Swim England's National Youth Development Programme. Ellie Chadwick was also selected to represent her Inter Counties Team, Middlesex County after managing to achieve 7th place at the English Summer Championships in the 100 free discipline.

In total, 14 out of 18 members of the senior group at Copthall made top ten places at the British or English Championships, with 19 top 10 places being secured at the British Summer Championships, the best result at the national summer championships ever from the swimmers at Barnet. This is an extraordinary achievement by all, and a true reflection of the extremely high standard of coaching at Barnet Copthall Swimming Club. Head coach Rhys Gormley, alongside his coaching staff Christine Green and Jamilla Bethley have set the standard to motivate swimmers to achieve excellence every single day. The difference between being good and being great is attention to detail, and Rhys and his coaching staff opitimize this in every training session by ensuring that demonstrations, advice, and feedback are always available to swimmers.

We wish all staff and swimmers at Barnet Copthall Swimming Club all the best with upcoming national and international championships.

Petrit Krasniqi (Barnet's Community Sports Officer for GLL Better)