REPTON CELEBRATES LANDMARK VICTORIES AND NEW RECORDS ON THE NATIONAL SWIMMING STAGE

Repton School are delighted to report the huge success of our swimming team at The English Schools’ Swimming Championships that took place at Sandwell Aquatics Centre in Birmingham, the venue of the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

Having previously enjoyed success in the last few years, including double gold for both the Junior and Intermediate Girls in 2023, followed by double gold and a national record for the Senior Girls in 2024, Repton entered the event with a history of success and a much-anticipated excitement.

Each team had both the freestyle and medley relays on their race card and each one of those had heats for the top thirty schools that had qualified, followed by the final for the ten fastest schools.

Our Senior Girls competed exceptionally well in the long course event, showing some advanced race skills to secure a bronze medal in the freestyle relay and an excellent silver in the medley.

In races of incredibly high standard for school level, the Senior Boys secured two silver medals and it was noticeable that the head-to-head racing of a number of junior internationals from the competing schools was remarkable viewing for the large crowd.

A young and relatively inexperienced Intermediate Boys’ Team, saw three members make their debut in the competition, yet they started strongly, securing a bronze medal in the medley relay. In the final race of the afternoon, the freestyle relay saw an exceptional head-to-head race. Having been seeded in second place going into the final after the heats, the final 50m saw a remarkably tight finish with Repton getting the touch by just 0.26 seconds to secure national gold and Repton’s first gold in the boys’ events since the first appearance at the finals in 2018.

Further highlights of the day were secured by the Intermediate Girls Team. Having been seeded first into the day after the qualification rounds, the team performed remarkably well and not only secured double gold, but broke the national record in both the freestyle and medley events, including being the first Intermediate Girls team to swim the 4x50m Medley relay (long course) in under two minutes, touching in a superb 1 minute 59.66 seconds.

It was a great day of racing across the board, with our pupils giving a great account of themselves on the national schools swimming stage. This event also provides an excellent experience ahead of further major events in this training cycle. Before the end of term, Repton Swimming, a national ranked and affiliated Swim England club as well as a school programme, will compete in The National Arena League Regional Final, where they will look to secure their third consecutive regional victory to then progress to The National Arena League Final in March, for the top ten clubs in the country, having placed second in this event last year.

Over 35 Repton Swimmers will also compete in The Swim England Winter Championships in December, alongside some of Britain's best swimmers and also alongside 10 Old Reptonians who will compete for their universities.

Find out more about swimming at Repton here.