British trio descend on Athens for European Youth Championships

A trio of artistic swimmers are in Athens to represent Great Britain at the European Youth Artistic Swimming Championships this week.

Andrea Eliasson, Madeleine Fish and Lena Ramanah-Beck make up the British contingent in Greece where they’ll take on 180 athletes from 23 countries at the Olympic Aquatic Centre which hosted the 2004 Olympics.

The Championships take place from Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 May for artistic swimmers aged between 13 and 15 (16 for male athletes) where London Regional’s Eliasson will enter the Free Solo whilst Ramanah-Beck (Salford Synchronised Swimming Club) and Fish (City of Leeds) team up in the Free Duet.

Each of the athletes will also be involved in the Figures competition as they look to build on their experience at home and battle for podium places at a European level.

Last time out, Great Britain’s made history when Maxwell Sewell became the first male British swimmer to compete as part of the nation’s Free Combination Team in 2022.

He helped the team to sixth in the final with the duet of Lily Halasi and Florence Blinkhorn also securing sixth place.

Their total of 76.6333 was the highest total from a British pair in the competition since the Olympic Duet of Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe competed in the age group.

This time around it will be the first time that the European Youth Championships will be held under the new scoring system which will provide a great experience for the young Brits.

All three are part of Swim England’s Artistic Swimming Youth Squad and have excelled at national level so far this year.

Ramanah-Beck won the Youth Figures title at the GoCardless Swim England Artistic Swimming National Age Group Championships whilst Eliasson took the Youth Free Solo crown. Fish meanwhile was amongst the youngest competitors at the GoCardless Swim England National Championships last month, representing Leeds in each of the duet and team events.

You can watch all the action on the European Aquatic TV YouTube channel and you can follow the live results here.