Millfield swimmers selected for National Junior Squad

Three Upper Sixth Millfield swimmers and two recent leavers have been chosen for the Swim England National Junior Squad for the 2020-21 season.

Upper Sixth students Joseph Deighan (1500m Freestyle), William Ellington (200m Breaststroke) and Tatiana Tostevin (100m Backstroke) have been named as some of the most promising English athletes of the future.

Recent leavers William Mitchell (100m Breaststroke) and Rachel Anderson (400m Freestyle), who now attend Loughborough University, have also been selected. Both Will and Rachel currently swim in the Loughborough performance groups, targeting the Olympic trials in April.

Millfield Swimming Coach Rachel Aldington has also been selected as part of the coaching team, where she will be working with the distance freestyle group.

The swimmers will now take part in a series of online camps, with the first taking place at the beginning of December. The goal of the online camps is to ensure that the swimmers have the necessary skills and behaviours so that they can look forward to a successful and enjoyable international swimming career.

Millfield is recognised as one of the top swimming programmes in Great Britain, with some of the most impressive training facilities of any school in the country, including a 50m Olympic pool built to FINA/AASA standards. The programme continually produces international, national and regional champions year on year. Along the way, swimmers learn lifelong skills such as effective time management, dedication and goal setting – all of which transfer to successful adult life.

The school has produced 24 Olympians in it’s short history and has had a swimmer at every Olympic Games since 1968 including champions like Duncan Goodhew, Mark Foster and most recently, James Guy.

Grant Robins, Swim England Head of Talent – Swimming, said: “It’s essential in these times that we stay engaged with our future performance potential. Using rankings, both long and short course as well as our event camps, has allowed us to be as inclusive as possible. This year has been particularly difficult to select this squad due to the lack of competitions but we believe there is a healthy blend of existing talent and new swimmers who have shown promising potential in the last 12 months.”

Millfield Director of Swimming, Euan Dale, says, “This is a great opportunity for these students to help develop the behavioural skills to make the successful transition from junior to senior swimming. The five students selected are great ambassadors for the values that Millfield encourages in all of our students, and we, as the Millfield swimming family, are immensely proud of their achievement.”