8 January 2019
Fifth year Nick Skelton came away with not only four junior medals out of four races, but also three ‘Open Age Group Final' appearances at the Winter Nationals at Sheffield. Qualifying for the age group finals required finishing in the top 20 male swimmers across all age groups, so a tremendous performance. In the process he broke a number of County and Regional records:
200 Backstroke – 1.58.78 – County Junior Record and Regional Junior Record – Junior Champion
200 IM – 2.05.15 – County Junior Record and Regional Junior Record – Junior Champion
50 Backstroke – 26.61 – Regional Junior Record – Junior Bronze
100 Backstroke – 55.71 – County Junior Record and Regional Junior Record – Junior Silver
The week afterward the Nationals, Nick was invited to join a small number of swimmers on a National Performance Event Camp at Pond’s Forge. This involved an intense week of personalised training and coaching with sports psychologists, nutritionists, strength and conditioning and video analysis.