Spalding’s Chloe eyes Olympic trials after national medal treble

Talented Spalding teenager Chloe Hannam came away from the British Summer Swimming Championships at Ponds Forge International Pool with three medals.

The South Holland star, formerly a member of Spalding-based South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club, won two national silver medals and one national bronze medal at the Sheffield event.

Having been in America since August, where she is studying at the University of Arkansas while continuing her swimming career with the University swim and dive team, Hannam returned in May for the summer break.

Upon her return she linked back up with City of Peterborough Swimming Club, under the watchful eye of her coach Ben Negus.

The season ended with the big national competition last week, where she competed in the 19 years and over age group (age as at end of the year ruling), despite still only being 18.

Over the course of the six-day meet she became a national silver medallist in both the 200m back stroke, in a new East region record time of 2.12.83mins, and in the 400m Individual Medley (4.53.04mins).

Hannam actually led the 400m IM event all the way until the last 25m, when she was pipped to the post and forced to settle for silver.

Having trained and competed while struggling with a shoulder injury, the Spalding ace still managed to hit her personal bests (PB) in both these events.

On the final day of the meet, Hannam also managed to bag herself a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle.

She clocked a time of 4.18.18mins, just two hundreths of a second off her PB time.

Amazingly, Hannam secured herself a place in the final of every event she competed in.

She narrowly missed out on a medal in the 800m freestyle when she came fourth, while also recording finishes of fifth (200m IM), sixth (100m backstroke) and tenth (200m freestyle).

Hannam will now take a well-deserved break from the pool before she heads back out to Arkansas to continue the second year of her four-year degree.

She was lucky enough to secure a four-year sports scholarship last year, which means she will study for a degree at the university whilst training and competing against other teams across America.

Closer to home, Hannam is also looking forward to returning to Britain for the Olympic Trials in Glasgow next April.

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