Great Britain name 31 swimmers for European Championships

“I’m very excited to represent Great Britain at my third Europeans and go back to the pool at Eindhoven which we had our World Championships at in 2010.”

Great Britain have named their team for the 2014 IPC Swimming European Championships, which take place from 4-10 August in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Double Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds will lead the team into action after qualifying in three events at the British Para-Swimming International Meet last week.

Simmonds will be competing in her third European Championships and will be eager to retain her two titles in the 400m freestyle S6 and 200m individual medley S6.

“I’m very excited to represent Great Britain at my third Europeans and go back to the pool at Eindhoven which we had our World Championships at in 2010,” Simmonds told British Swimming.

“My 50m free personal best still stands from that competition. We’ve got an amazing team going as well so I’m really looking forward to this summer.

“We’ve got some amazing athletes on the team this year. Steph Slater swam a world record in the 100m fly in Glasgow and she looked incredible in the pool. And then we’ve got youngsters like Amy Marren who is a four-time World Champion and Alice Tai who has qualified for her first major competition.

“It’s great to see the youngsters coming through for the future but also it’s nice to have the legends like Sascha Kindred and James Crisp still representing the team and competing for Great Britain.”

The world-record holder is joined by world champion Steph Slater and Paralympic champions Jon Fox and Ollie Hynd and multi-Paralympic medallist Sascha Kindred, who will be going to his sixth Europeans.

Slater, who broke the 100m butterfly S8 world record in Glasgow, qualified in five events of the six she swam during the British Para-Swimming International Meet and showed she has begun to make her mark on the international circuit.

“It’s an amazing feeling to have been selected for my first European Championships,” Slater said. “Hopefully I can build on what I did at Worlds last year.

“I got five out of my six qualification times so maybe I’ll swim all of them in Eindhoven but we’ll see what works with the schedule.”

Four-time world champion Amy Marren secured her place on the team for her first European Championships and world medallists Andrew Mullen and Hannah Russell will return to the Europeans eager to add to their medal tallies.

The complete British swimming team for Eindhoven includes:

Jack Bridge

Josef Craig

James Crisp

Jonathan Fox

Thomas Hamer

Craig Harris

Kahoru Harazawa

James Hollis

Oliver Hynd

Sascha Kindred

Aaron Moores

Andrew Mullen

Scott Quin

Jack Thomas

Matthew Walker

Robert Welbourn

Matthew Wylie

Gemma Almond

Jessica-Jane Applegate

Claire Cashmore

Chloe Davies

Charlotte Henshaw

Eleni Papadopoulos

Nicole Lough

Amy Marren

Stephanie Millward

Susie Rodgers

Hannah Russell

Ellie Simmonds

Stephanie Slater

Alice Tai