City of Sunderland Amateur Swimming Club swimmer Eleni Papadopoulos has once again done the city proud by being selected to represent Great Britain at the IPC World Championships. Seventeen year old Eleni who is a member of the World Class Development Programme, the North Eastern Regional Squad and is an Ambassador for the 2012 Paralympic Potential Programme, recently won the NPower Young Female Achiever Award for the second year running - adding to a long list of impressive swimming achievements. Eleni is now training hard in preparation for the championships which take place in Eindhoven, Holland, during August. Coach Danny Thompson said, " This year Eleni has continued her development moving on from a very successful European championships in 2009 and is ready to test herself for the first time on a world stage, which is part of her journey on the road to London  2012 "

Team mate Matt Wylie narrowly missed out on qualifying for the IPC World Championships at the Ponds Forge Pool, Sheffield. Thirteen year old Matt, winner of the NPower Young Male Achiever Award, competed in a strong field of 250 swimmers from 18 different countries - including champions from the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. In the S9 Class British Placings, Matt achieved second place in the 400m freestyle and 100m Butterfly, third place in the 100m Breaststroke, fourth place in the 100m Backstroke, fifth place in the 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle and sixth place in the 200m Individual Medley heats. Matt also achieved an overall placing of sixth in the 100m Backstroke final.

The City of Sunderland ASC junior swimming team continued their quest for points in the third round of the Durham and District Junior (Diddy) League One, at the Wear Valley Pool, Bishop Auckland. After previously finishing a close second to a strong Newcastle team, the city swimmers were now seeking top spot, this time against teams from Middlesbrough, Stockton, Chester-le-Street, Tynemouth and Newburn.

In the 9 year old age group, Natalya Sharp, Charlotte Jurgens, Stephanie Burdess, Harry Staines, Ben Hutchinson and Blake Stevenson performed well in the team events, with Ben Hutchinson scoring maximum points for the city by winning the 25m Butterfly individual event.

From the outset, the Sunderland and Tynemouth teams set the pace for the competition with both teams wrestling for top spot. Joseph Pomfret (10) increased the pressure on Tynemouth with victories in the 50m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly events and together with fellow ten year olds Matty Walker Smith, Callum Dan, Elizabeth Clements, Eve Larson, Beth Nicholson and Amelia Bateman, established a narrow lead for the City of Sunderland.

Impressive individual and team performances by eleven year olds; James Brewerton, Will Robinson, Jodi Bunker, Alex Clements, Lauren Patterson and Jennifer Sharp and twelve year olds; Andrew Markham, Harry Richardson, Callum Reveley, Kristian Donaldson, Jessica Thompson, Georgina Lamb, Laura Taylor, Christina Castledene and Ashlyn Liddle, maintained Sunderland’s supremacy, with the team eventually clinching top spot eight points ahead of the Tynemouth team.

The final positions were:

The team next travel to the Neptune Pool, Middlesbrough for the fourth and final round of the competition before the league final at Felling on 27th June 2010. 

Three swimmers from the City of Sunderland ASC represented the city at the Sheffield Premier Meet taking a prestigious individual award and achieving a clutch of personal best times.

Izzy Bosanko finished the meet with the top girl swimmer award for the 12 year old age group, after a series of impressive performances. In the 1500m freestyle she took 40 seconds off her personal best time to achieve her first national time of the year and in the tough 200m butterfly event she achieved the national qualifying time for the second year running. Coach Paul Woodley said, ‘Izzy did really well. She had a busy weekend and dug deep to achieve her qualifying time for the 200m butterfly – an event in which she reached last year’s national final.’

Annabelle Joyce had two solid swims achieving long course personal best times in the 200m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke, while team mate Lucy Ellis followed up her impressive Northumberland and Durham performance in the 800m Freestyle by taking 10 seconds off her personal best time. Lucy also achieved personal best times in all of her events at this meet. Coach Paul Woodley said, ‘Lucy now is only 9 seconds off qualifying for National Championships in July and achieving personal best times all weekend is a fantastic achievement bearing in mind the number of events she has competed in.’