Report by Shirley Coop

Hot on the heels of some excellent results at the British Gas Senior Nationals and winning the Isle of Man Under 21 Sportsman of the Year Award, Grant Halsall has been selected to represent Great Britain at the European Junior Championships in Helsinki in July.

Competing at the Nationals in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, Halsall made the final in each event and along the way broke the British Age Group Record in the 100m and Senior Manx Long Course Records a massive six times. 

In the 50m, he finished sixth in 26.98, having lowered the Manx Record in both the heats (with 27.09) and semi-final (with 27.06) on the way. 

His heat swim in the 100m was just two hundredths of a second inside the Manx Record at 56.73, which he then lowered again in the semi with 56.68.  His swim in the final was slightly slower at 57.26 for seventh place.
 
His time of 2 min 03.65 for the heat of the 200m was another record and qualified him for the final, where he finished tenth in 2 min 05.91. 

What makes Halsall’s performance even more remarkable is that since January competitors have had to revert to fabric suits after two years of ‘hi-tech’ suits that have been said to enhance performance.

These were very impressive swims for the 16 year old, who is a recipient of the Gubay Chase Your Dreams Scholarship. 

Halsall was the youngest in all of the backstroke finals and gained valuable experience against top class senior swimmers, including current world champion and record holder over 50m, Liam Tancock, and James Goddard, Olympic finalist over 200m.

Sports Aid Foundation recipient, Tom Bielich, has also been in record breaking form with a new Manx Junior Long Course Record for the 400m individual medley at the Sheffield Open Meet recently.  His time of 4 min 54.89 giving him 4th place.