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This year Tigersharks have achieved the highest number of qualifiers, for the National Age Group and Youth competition, for quite some time..

Back Row:
Shaun Bracey, Grant Turner, Dean Williamson, Aaron Lee
Middle Row:
Alex Jones, Jazz Carlin, Hayley Wood, Rosemary Broad
Front Row:
Stacey Wood, Joshua Wheeler, Sophie Hawkins

The National Age Group (BagCat) Competition will run from Saturday 30th July to Tuesday 2nd August 2005 and the National Youth Competition will run from Thursday 4th August to Tuesday 9th August 2005.

Tigersharks brightest prospects are Grant Turner (16) and Jazz Carlin (14).

Grant has recently returned from the Youth Olympics in Italy where he was part of the 4 x 100m Frontcrawl team that finished a creditable 4th. Grant will be joining the Australian off Shore training program in early September. This is mainly funded by the ASA and is dedicated to working with the top British prospects as we move towards the Beijing (China) Olympics in 2008. Grant won a Bronze medal at last years National competition and is looking to make the medal positions again this year over the 50m and 100m Frontcrawl. Grant has qualified to swim in the following events 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m Freestyle, 200m & 400m Medley.

Jazz has excelled this year over the Frontcrawl events and she competed in the Junior European Championships 10 days ago where as part of the 4 x 200m Frontcrawl team she produced the swim of her life. Along with her three team mates they snatched the Bonze medal, a great achievement for this young swimmer. Carlin has consistently broken both Wiltshire and District records over the Frontcrawl events this year proving what an outstanding talent she is. Jazz has qualified to swim in 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m Freestyle, 200m & 400m Medley. Her best events will be the 400m and 800m Frontcrawl where she will be looking to match or better her Silver medal of last year.

Shaun Bracey (16) and Aaron Lee (14) are both Backstroke specialists and will be competing in both the 100m and 200m events. Bracey has competed at the Nationals three times previously, Lee will be competing for the first time. Both boys have had some outstanding results at major competitions this year.

Hayley Wood (16) is a great talent over the long distance Frontcrawl events and looks to be swimming at her best this year. Hayley has achieved National Qualification four years in a row. Competing in the 400m and 800m Frontcrawl she will be hoping to place well in her age group.
Stacey Wood will once again be competing in the arduous 200m Butterfly where she continues to dominate Wiltshire swimming over this distance. Stacey broke the Wiltshire Junior Age Group Best time this year, a record that had stood since 1998.

Alex Jones and Dean Williamson (both 13) are also becoming seasoned attendees at the National Age Groups having competed three years running. Jones, a Frontcrawl specialist has achieved more qualifying times this year than any previous year. He will be competing in 100m, 200m, 400m & 1500m Freestyle, 200m Backstroke, 200m & 400 Medley. His best events look to be the 400m and 1500m Frontcrawl where he hopes to finish in a final top 10 position.
Williamson, known as a distance event swimmer, will be competing in the 200m Butterfly and 1500m Frontcrawl. He hopes to be able to achieve a final top 10 place in the 200m Butterfly event.

First time qualifiers Sophie Hawkins, Rosemary Broad and Joshua Wheeler will all be competing in Frontcrawl events. Hawkins (12) will compete in the 100m and 200m Frontcrawl, Broad (11) in the 800m Frontcrawl and Wheeler (11) will compete over 3 events, the 100m, 200m and 400m Frontcrawl. All three swimmers will be looking forward to their first experience of National competition and hope to come away with a top 10 position.

For Tigersharks National Coach, Phil Millard, this will be a bitter sweet time as he is retiring at the end of August. However he can leave knowing that he is leaving his club on a high with more National qualifiers than they have had for many years. All of the swimmers will be hoping to make this a memorable two weeks for him.