College Girls at the British Swimming Nationals

Published on isbi School News dated Wednesday 3rd of August 2016

Tuesday 26th July was the start of the British Swimming Summer Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield. This is the pinnacle of national level swimming as only 24 individuals qualify for each event at each age group. Two girls from Bishop’s Stortford College, Elinah Phillip and Ellie Mitchell, both just 16 years of age, made the grade and travelled up to South Yorkshire for the event, held over 5 days. The competition was inevitably tough and the effort and dedication that has gone into just making it to this competition cannot be underestimated. College coach, Deborah Huggett commented “To put the British Summer Nationals into perspective, they include the top 24 swimmers in each age group within the UK. So it is a fantastic achievement just to be there. They have both done really well.” Ellie’s favoured stroke is Backstroke and after a good tactical heat in the 100m she finished 9th overall in a very strong field but faired slightly better in the 50m with a final 8th place. Both girls swam in the 100m Freestyle but failed to make the final. Elinah however, finished 4th overall in the 50m Butterfly and won a Bronze medal in the 50m Freestyle. Elinah is off to Rio later this month to represent the British Virgin Islands at the Olympics. Congratulations to both girls on being amongst the top 10 swimmers in their age group in the UK.