Tonbridge Swimming Club’s Iona Winnifrith is selected for Para Swimming World Championships in Singapore

Two female Tonbridge Swimming Club swimmers competed at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships over the course of six days leading up to Easter Sunday at the London Aquatic Centre.

Para-swimming superstar Iona Winnifrith raced in four events over four days and continued along her pathway to international selection. Iona qualified for four Multi-Class Para Finals from her four events. Para swimmers racing in Multi-class events all race each other so there are swimmers of varied disability categories all within the same race. All swimmers have their swim times compared to the world record for their own para class and earn points based on this. 

Multi-Class racing is great to watch as you never know who has won the event until the last swimmer has finished as the swimmers are then ranked based on the number of points that their swim scored.

Iona set a new PB in the MC 50m Freestyle heat and finished 4^th on points in the final. She won Gold in the MC 50 Butterfly final.                                               

Iona finished 5^th in the MC 200m Individual Medley and set a new PB and a new British Record along the way. This is also an English, South East Regional, Kent County and club record. 

Iona saved the best to last and finished 2^nd on points in her favoured MC 100m Breaststroke event on Easter Sunday. Swimming a time fast enough to beat the selectors’ pre-set entry time for consideration for the Para World Swimming Championships later this summer. 

We are delighted to share that it was announced last week by Aquatics GB that Iona was one of 14 Para swimmers that have their selection confirmed and Iona is off to Singapore to her first Para World Swimming Championships in September. Huge congratulations to Iona for this fantastic achievement.

Also competing at the Aquatics GB Championships was 19 year old Caitlin Ebbage. Caitlin is a dual member of Tonbridge SC as she is currently away at university studying for a degree in Exercise and Sports Science. Caitlin currently competes for the University of Stirling at major championships. Caitlin is a former TSC club captain.

Caitlin raced in the 3 backstroke events during the championships and qualified for two “B” finals and one “A” final. A magnificent achievement for this experienced swimmer. 

Caitlin set new PBs in the 50m and 100m Backstroke finishing 9^th overall in the 50m Backstroke (she won the “B” final) and finished 10^th overall in the 100m Backstroke (2^nd in the “B” Final). Caitlin qualified for her first British “A” final in the 200m Backstroke and finished 8^th. A fantastic achievement and a great experience for her to race against 4 Olympians in the same final!