Great Britain top team at European Down Syndrome Championships

Great Britain & Northern Ireland were named the top team at the seventh European Down Syndrome Championships.

Down Syndrome Great Britain took a team of 33 swimmers to Padova to compete at last months Championships with 13 nations taking part at the event in Northern Italy.

Teams from the USA, South Africa and Brazil joined ten European nations to compete for medals in the 50m pool at the Impianti Sportivi Padovanuoto complex.

The GB team worked hard to repeat their top team success from 2019 and 2017 where they achieved their goal based on points won throughout the competition.

They faced stiff competition from both hosts Italy and Portugal but pulled through thanks to the superb efforts of everyone involved to come home with an impressive haul of 55 European medals and numerous world records.

The final standings saw the British team top the final points table by more than 200 points with a total of 742 from the four-day event.

They won 16 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze medals to go clear of Italy (508) and Portugal (460) in the overall points table.

Amongst the impressive performances, Ellen Stephenson of Richmond Dales stood out. She came away with the Top Female Mosaic swimmer award from the event after winning eight gold medals and setting two Mosaic world records in the 1500m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke.

She was closely followed by Alex Edwards – who was ranked third in the category – whilst Mark Evens and Amalia Freeland finished second in the T21 Men and Women’s standings respectively.

Freeland was part of the world record breaking T21 Women’s 4x100m Freestyle relay team alongside Helen Thompson, Caroline Faithful and Cerys McCrindle whilst Edwards set the Mosaic worlds best in the Women’s 50m and 200m Butterfly.

‘A tribute to the sport’

Following the team’s success, their head Coach Keith Hall (Richmond Dales) said: “This was an outstanding success for the GB Team.

“The progress each athlete has made, the resilience they have shown, the commitment, maturity and dedication are a tribute to DSS-GB and the sport.

“The whole swimming community should be proud that these young athletes are representing their country in the sport in such a professional manner, giving everything every time they compete.

“Numerous European and World records were broken during the week and the team came home full of pride and with more international experience.

“They are now looking to progress and improve, hoping to be selected to represent GB at the World Championships in Antalya, Turkey in March 2024.

“Thanks as always go to the team behind the team that go above and beyond to support these athletes to be able to perform at their best.”

As well as focusing on March’s World Championships, a number of the British swimmers are also preparing for this year’s British Down Syndrome Swimming Championships.

The event returns to the K2, Crawley for 2023 for two days of action from 18-19 November. Entries for the competition are open until 26 October and you can find out more about the event, including how to enter here.

Click here to see all the results from the 2023 European Down Syndrome Championships.