A leading Scottish sports facility is celebrating the success of its elite athletes qualifying for the 2016 Olympic swimming trials.
The City of Aberdeen Swim Team (COAST), a swimming training and development club, which includes more than 75 elite swimmers from six key local swimming clubs, trains at Aberdeen Sports Village (ASV), Aquatics Centre.
Eight high performing athletes from COAST, have secured places in the Rio 2016 Olympic swimming trials. ASV has assisted in producing some of the city’s leading professional athletes, by providing state-of-the-art facilities for them to train in locally.
This week, the British Championships take place in Glasgow, which also acts as the platform for the 2016 summer Olympics. Hundreds of athletes will compete for selection into the GB squad for the Rio Olympics.
COAST 2016 Olympic trial qualifiers include, Jessica Thomson, Kirsty Simpson, Stuart McIntosh, Finlay Deans, and brothers Jack Watson and Eddie Watson. Toni Shaw and Conner Morrison succeeded in the Paralympics qualifiers.
COAST, which is in the top five of the most successful swim training programmes in Scotland, is also looking to secure athletes in the Commonwealth Games finals in 2018.
Since its establishment in 2009, ASV, which boasts more than 10000 members, has offered those of all abilities, including elite athletes, an international class location in which to train and compete.
Interim head coach of COAST, Gregor McMillan, is aware of the challenges the athletes face with his background of being a performance athlete himself making it to previous Olympic trials. Gregor uses his expertise to guide them whilst developing their skills.
World, Olympic and Commonwealth champion, Robbie Renwick also trained with COAST as well as Olympic finalist and Commonwealth gold medal winner, David Carry.
Mr McMillan said: “We are ecstatic that a number of our leading athletes have secured key qualifying opportunities allowing them to experience an Olympic trials event, getting them one step closer to competing at the Olympics in 2016, and, with the long term goal to reach the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“The facilities at ASV are world-class and boast a number of training and development opportunities in and out of the water. The support the athletes get at ASV is second to none and the expertise they have access to has been vital in getting them in these finalist positions. Our athletes train exceptionally hard and some are working part-time at the facility as well to help fund their career development. Competing in competitions can prove a costly investment so we are working extremely hard to find key sponsorship opportunities for the athletes so they can concentrate further on their development.”
Robbie Renwick, Olympic and Commonwealth champion, added: “ASV is a fantastic centre for developing sporting talent and I only wish I’d had something of a similar calibre to train in whilst I was training in Aberdeen many years ago. It is great to hear of so many sporting success stories coming out the city and I wish all of the athletes the very best in gaining a position at the 2016 summer Olympics.”
Aberdeen Sports Village, home to the city’s leading Aquatics Centre, hosts over 100 different exercise classes and employs over 250 members of staff. COAST is one of the top teams in Scotland, focusing on competitive programmes for elite swimmers in Aberdeen.