The 2016 IPC Swimming European Open Championships was held in Funchal, on the island of Madeira, Portugal from 30 April – 7 May.
Featuring around 450 athletes from 50 countries, the event was organised locally by the Portuguese Swimming Federation (FPN).  In addition to European athletes, several South American countries sent strong teams to compete in the Open event which ran alongside the main event.
This competition featured separate events for each classification – so athletes would be racing each other on pure times (rather than points).
City of Sunderland had 2 of our Para-Swimmers selected as part of strong GB Team. Â Josef Craig (S8) and Matt Wylie (S9) would be racing in Freestyle events and both were lucky enough to be selected for the Freestyle relay.
Day 1 – S9 50m Freestyle, S8 100m Freestyle
First to swim on day 1 was Matt in the S9 50m Freestyle. Â Matt touched first in Heat 1 in a time of 26.21 – putting him into the final in first place.
Josef swam the S8 100m freestyle and unfortunately was disqualified.
The S9 50m Freestyle final featured the reigning European Champion (Jose Mari), European Record Holder (Tamas Toth) and the World Champion (Alexander Skaliukh). Â Despite the stacked field Matt delivered a fantastic swim, touching first in 25.85 to be crowned European Champion for the first time.
Day 2 – S8 400m Freestyle
Day 2 saw Josef swim in the S8 400m Freestyle. Â He cruised through the heats in a time of 4:42.09 – heading into the final in third place.
In the final Josef took on the World, European and Paralympic Champion and fellow GB teammate Ollie Hynd. Â In a season’s best performance Josef finished second behind Ollie, touching in a time of 4:35.87 for a fantastic Silver Medal.
Day 3 – Mens 34pt 4x100m Freestyle Relay
Para-Swimming relay teams are made up of any combination of swimmers whose classification numbers add up to 34 or less. Â The GB team selected was Ollie Hynd (S8), Matt Wylie (S9), Josef Craig (S8) and Lewis White (S9) – the first time this young team had swum together in competition.
Swimming in the outside lane 8 – the GB team had close eyes of the Russians and Brazilians in the centre of the pool.
Brazil started strongly with two of the fastest S10’s on the planet – Andre Brasil and Phillipe Rodrigues – taking them to an early lead.
Team GB started with a solid swim from Ollie Hynd (1:00.34) handing over to Matt Wylie on the second leg. Â Matt’s split was an astonishing 57.37 bringing Team GB back into contention with the Russians. Â Josef took the third leg and delivered a tremendous swim touching in 58.90.
At this point the Brazilians were forced to use their lower classed swimmers – however one of those was the most successful Para swimmers of all time, Daniel Dias. Â However the Russians had saved their fastest swimmer until the last leg – Dmitry Gregorian, the S10 European Champion.
Team GB’s Lewis White swam an unbelievable last leg (56.86) – attempting to catch the Brazilians who had eventually been overhauled by the Russians. Team GB touched in third place in a time of 3:53.47 behind Russia and Brazil – taking the Silver medal (as Brazil are non-European).
Day 5 – S9 100m Freestyle
Matt was the only City Of Sunderland swimmer on day 5, competing in the S9 100m Freestyle.  In the heats  he finished in 59.39 for tenth place – not enough to make final.
Day 7 – S8 50m Freestyle
In Josef’s last race of the championships he swam in the heats of the S8 50m Freestyle finishing in 5th in a time of 27.68.
In the final Josef improved on his heat time finishing in 27.22, a seasons best – but agonisingly just 2 hundredths of a second behind the bronze medalist.
