A pupil from a school in Bingham is taking the swimming world by storm, breaking a Nottinghamshire record that stood for 18 years and adding more medals to his ever-growing collection.
Lewis Warner who attends Toot Hill School – which is part of the Nova Education Trust – qualified for the Swim England National Winter Championships in eight separate events, but chose to concentrate on four.
He achieved a personal best in all of his heats and qualified for the Junior National Finals in the 50, 100 and 200-metre backstroke.
Lewis won bronze in both the 50 and 100-metre backstroke and his stunning time in the latter smashed the Nottinghamshire Senior County record.
“Qualifying for my first Swim England National Winter Championships in eight different events after the past 18 months of interrupted training because of covid came as quite a surprise,” said Lewis.
“I had to continue to push myself using other training methods, working hard to replicate the same intensity. My aim of the meet was to make one of the National Junior Finals.
“To come home with two bronze medals from four events was something I had never really thought possible, but I am now looking forward to seeing what 2022 will bring.
“To make it to Nationals has been a team effort really – my family and all of their continued support; my school teachers for supporting me to do what I love; the team at Pyramid Performance for keeping me moving and motivated while we were out of the water; my swimming coach Michael Glossop at BSS for his direction and focus; and my team-mates for pushing me and keeping me laughing during training.”
The Swim England National Winter Championships is the biggest English swimming meet of the winter months, attended by Britain’s top senior swimmers.
Lewis shared the 50 and 100-metre backstroke podium with Olympian Joe Litchfield, who represented GB at this summer’s Olympics in Tokyo.
Chris Eardley, Head of School at Toot Hill, said: “We are all so proud of Lewis. He is such a humble student but he fully deserves all the attention he is getting.
“It is hard to believe that this was his first-ever national swimming competition. We are blessed at Toot Hill School to have such a wealth of great swimming talent.
“Lewis exemplifies our school ethos of ‘Work Hard, Be Kind, Take Pride’. He has achieved such great things so early in his swimming career thanks to his tremendous talent and dedication. Well done to Lewis.”
It crowns a memorable few weeks for the school after the quartet of Oscar Ferrar, Lewis Hare, William Newham and Ben Roberts led Toot Hill to a top five finish at the National Finals in London last month.