Niki bags national qualifier (From Craven Herald)

Niki bags national qualifier

6:14pm Wednesday 24th June 2009 in

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THIRTEEN-year-old Niki Chatburn gained a 1500m freestyle silver medal competing in the North Eastern Swimming Championships last weekend. Competing in the longest indoor swimming distance Niki has been making her mark over the last year with a bronze in the winter championships and now a silver.

Niki has been coached by the head coach, Andy Pearce, of the City Of Bradford’s National Potential Squad to pace the arduous swim to finish in 19.05 minutes, taking ten seconds off her lifetime’s best.

With tremendous support from her teammates she swam away from all but one late entry swimmer, who she thought was in a different age group.

Niki is also a member of the City of Bradford 200 metres freestyle team who booked their place at the National finals in July.

After Skipton swimmer James Dawson made the Nationals last week it takes the City of Bradford total to nine swimmers, or half the squad, being measured for the prestigious National shirts.

Niki attends South Craven School and started swimming for Skipton before moving to the National Potential Squad at City of Bradford Swimming Club. She normally does 13 hours water time training a week but leading up to the meet she added three extra mornings of 1½ hours each, getting up at 4.15am to swim before school.