Training camp - Spain

 

Swimmers from Hamilton Aquatics that traveled to Spain for a high altitude training camp have been treated to coaching sessions from some of the world’s best coaches and have had the chance to meet Olympic medalists. Our swimmers who are training at the Sierra Nevada High Performance Altitude Centre at 2320m, before their major summer competitions, were given a boost not only by having access to a 3 week camp with excellent facilities, but also through being coached by Nori, coach to the world’s greatest ever Breaststroker, 4 time Olympic Champion Kosuke Kitajima (Japan). They have also been coached and given advise from Bani, an Italian National coach, and Helge, the Head coach to the Austrian National Team. Each coach offered different advice from race tactics to technique.

Ross was presented with a Japanese national team legskin, while Hamilton Aquatics have been invited to swim in the prestigious Japanese National Age Group Championships in March and also the Toyko Open in November. 

Amongst the numerous Olympic swimmers they have had chance to meet and train alongside Olympic silver medalist Alessia Filippi, Olympic bronze medalist Takeshi Matsuda and European champion, Federico Colbertaldo. The team of Muhammed, Tom, Ross and Velimir got to race a 4x50m against the Italian womens national team, who we lost to by just 0.2s. In a Medley Relay the team of Cody, me, Velimir and Kevin had a race against a mixed Japanese team, again just losing by 0.1s.

Away from the pool swimmers also have had time to socialize with elite sportsmen and women from other sports than swimming. The most notable person was Chris – from the Swedish National Judo Team, weighing in at over 135kgs made easy work of keeping Tom under control.  We also had the opportunity to see Alhambra, the town of Granada and hike up to 3400m, to the highest peak in the region.

This summer Velimir will compete in the European Youth Olympics, Kevin, Frank and Marcus will race at the British Nationals, Ross and Sarah will race at the Canadian World trials and Age Group Nationals, Tom will race at the Belgian Nationals. Swimmers competing in South Africa are, Megan Mileham, James Loubser, Victoria Wallis and Mark Matthews. Fraser Hansen will race in Plymouth and Alice Kirkaldy will race in Cambridge. Sorry if I have missed anyone else out.