The international selections keep coming thick and fast for Plymouth College swimmers. No less than ten athletes have had call-ups for their nations across four different and highly prestigious international meets between now and January 2013.
With European Junior Champion Joe Patching (pictured) starting his campaign for Great Britain at the European Short Course Championships in Chartres, France earlier this week, this seemed to be the catalyst for a whole host of selection letters to make their appearance through the letterbox in the days to come.
Harry Ackland will make his Great Britain debut as part of a small and elite youth team hopping on a flight to Brazil to take on the home nation in a dual meet and train alongside them in an offshore camp. Part of Harry's trip will be to visit the construction site for the 2016 Olympic Park in Rio De Janeiro; Ackland has been identified as one of the young hopefuls who can break on to Team GB in Rio when he will be 21 years of age, hence this rather unique and unprecedented selection.
Next up will be the World Short Course Championships in Istanbul, Turkey where Ruta Meilutyte (Lithuania), Hazal Sarikaya (Turkey), Jade Howard (Zambia), Tieri Erasito (Fiji) and Ahmad Attellesey (Libya) will all make appearances. Plymouth can boast three Olympians amongst their quintet, with another of their Olympians, Jamila Lunkuse (Uganda), declining her selection on this occasion for personal reasons. All eyes will, of course, be on Olympic Champion Meilutyte at this event and it wil be interesting to see how she fares against the world's best in a 25m pool, having already won two titles in such a pool at the FINA World Cup in Stockholm, Sweden in October.
And on to January, where European Junior medallists Grace Vertigans and Ben Proud will step up once again for Great Britain (alongside team-mate Joe Patching) at the Flanders Cup in Antwerp, Belgium as part of a senior British team that once again focuses on its bright hopes of the future - something which Patching, Vertigans and Proud very much form a part of.
