City of St Albans swimmers enjoyed a fine trip to Sheffield for the Swim England National Championships.

George Loveman led the way with gold in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke before adding a bronze from the 50m.

Yasmin Meadows set two PBs, one in the heats and one in the final of the 100m breaststroke while Kieran Birkett made the finals of the 50m and 100m backstroke.

He too set PBs in both the heats and the finals where he finished fifth in both.

Birkett was returning to Sheffield after the British Summer Championships where he was in the 200m backstroke while Meadows was a debutant on the national stage.

Loveman is a relative veteran to national championships but the club's head coaching team of Mike Cole and Paul Wollaston are delighted with the progress their swimmers are making.

They said: "These three have trained and competed as hard as any and to make the hard qualification times for these championships. It is a great achievement to which we feel there will be many more to come in future years.

"We hope these swimmers will seize this opportunity to go that little bit further and to keep dreaming big dreams."

Club chairman Tony Dotchin said: "The whole club is immensely proud of all its swimmers, be them the youngest starting their swimming career, or the oldest taking part in the various individual open meets or as a team member in the competitive leagues.

"We can’t over look the fact that it’s always down to the individual to put in the many hours of pool and land training to get the qualification times to get into such national events and have the chance to prove themselves against the top ranked swimmers in the country.

"These three have put in that hard work and they will see the fruits of their labour."

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