Courtesy: British Swimming
A total of twelve artistic swimming athletes have been named to represent Team GB at the European Games later this month, with a number of different pairings and groups taking to the pool at the Oswiecim Aquatics Centre from 21st-25th June.
The travelling contingent features a mixture of those with international and Olympic experience and those who are making their major international debuts at the Games, which serves as the official senior European Artistic Swimming Championships for 2023.
Those with experience at this level include Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe – the Tokyo 2020 duet pairing contesting the Duet Technical and Free events following their impressive bronze medals at the recent Montpellier leg of the Artistic Swimming World Cup.
Another British duet pairing who caught the eye at the event were Ranjuo Tomblin and Beatrice Crass in the Mixed Duet – with this edition of the Games making history as the first one to feature such a category. They’ve been selected for the Mixed Duet Technical and Free events as the young pairing look to build on the good experience they’ve acquired so far in their careers.
Joining the pairs out in the Polish city are the Free, Technical, and Acrobatic teams. With all members of the squad training out of the British Swimming High Performance Centre Bristol; refining their routines ahead of the competition, which also carries qualification spots for next summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
All of the named athletes will be looking to refine their performances even further ahead of the World Aquatics Championships, which take place the following month.
A total of 170 athletes from 20 nations are expected to be competing at the competition, which will take place predominantly in Krakow and Malopolska. The aquatics venue will also be hosting the diving events, with the Team GB athletes for the sport named earlier today.
Team captain Isobel Davies gave her thoughts ahead of the Games – highlighting how the competition can be used for further development of the squad.
“We are really looking forward to showcasing our new routines for the first time. Since our training camp in Turkey we have been working on increasing the difficulty of the routines. We are very excited to compete our acrobatic team because it’s a new event for us and we feel as though we have improved our lifts a lot this year.
“We think that the new scoring system is a good opportunity for us to improve our rankings. The new rules add an extra element of excitement to the competition so we are really looking forward to competing for the first time this season in Poland, and seeing how we score against the other teams.”
Artistic Swimming team named by Team GB for the 2023 European Games in Krakow, Poland (21st June – 2nd July)
- Eleanor Blinkhorn
- Isobel Blinkhorn
- Millie Costello
- Beatrice Crass
- Isobel Davies
- Cerys Hughes
- Aimee Lawrence
- Daniella Lloyd
- Kate Shortman
- Robyn Swatman
- Isabelle Thorpe
- Ranjuo Tomblin
- Katie Clark (Team Coach)
- Paola Basso (Mixed Duet Coach)
- Yumiko Tomomatsu (Duet Coach)
- Karen Thorpe (Team Leader)