Chamberlain-Hyde to make a splash at nationals

SONNY Chamberlain-Hyde from Seagulls Swimming Club in Christchurch has successfully placed himself in all three of the upcoming major summer national swimming competitions.

Chamberlain-Hyde will head off to the British championships held in Glasgow where he will compete in the 100m and 200m backstroke events against the country’s fastest youth swimmers.

With just a couple of days to recover, he will then participate in the 50m backstroke and 200m individual medley events at the English nationals in Sheffield.

He is well placed, having won, among other medals, a hat-trick of three golds in the 16-year-old backstroke events in the south west regional championships in Plymouth and 12 golds at the Dorset county championships earlier in the year.

He also won at the English Nationals last year in the 200m backstroke in a time of 2:11:63 which is his benchmark to beat.

Martin Littlefair, head coach at Seagulls Swimming Club, said that he was pleased with the dedication his swimmers have shown to get to the championships: “Sonny and all of my youth performance squad train hard and their commitment shows in the results. In total Seagulls have three swimmers who have successfully achieved a place in the British summer championships (Chamberlain-Hyde, Isaac Ellis and Sam Small), three swimmers at English nationals (Chamberlain-Hyde, Isaac Ellis and Emily McWilliam), one at the Welsh Nnationals (Sam Small) and two swimmers for the open water nationals (Chamberlain-Hyde and James Richardson). For a small, local club it is an achievement we are very proud of”.