Member Article

A (common) wealth of entrants for Stockport Metro

Two of Stockport’s young swimming stars are going for gold, after qualifying for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Holly Hibbott (17) and Michael Gunning (23) of team ‘Wolfpack’ at Life Leisure’s Stockport Metro Swimming Club, both competed at the Budapest World Championships this summer.

Holly has broken every age group record set by Olympic Champion Rebecca Adlington so far, and at trials in April beat Jazmin Carlin (two time Olympic silver medallist in Rio) to secure her place in Budapest and her first senior GB team representation.

Holly has been training with Stockport Metro since 2014. She moved to the Life Leisure facility aged 14 to swim with an adult team and push her professional development.

Since moving to Stockport Metro, Holly has been 2014 EU Junior Champion, World Junior medallist Bronze 2015 and EU Junior Silver medallist 2016. She is currently ranked number nine in the world.

Sean Kelly, Head Coach at Life Leisure’s Stockport Metro said: “At Stockport Metro we put an extraordinary amount of effort into the development of each swimmer – this is a strategy that has paid dividends this year with Holly, Michael and Katie Matts in particular, all gaining top 20 world rankings. Year-on-year our swimmers continue to perform on the world stage.”

In fact 2017 has been one of the club’s strongest ever years. Holly and fellow teammate Katie Matt attended a meet in Texas, at which they and other members of Team GB were identified as possible candidates for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Meanwhile the synchronised swimming team achieved fifth place (out of 27) at the new combo-cup competition in September, with the under-15 group gaining bronze.

Since 2012 Stockport Metro has grown its elite programme from 160 to 300 swimmers. The number of local residents learning to swim with the club has also increased from 4,500 to 6,000 – proving Stockport Metro’s popularity with swimmers at all levels, from Olympians to absolute beginners.

Sean Kelly, Head Coach since 2001 and a swimmer himself, has presided over a long list of medallists, including four Olympic stars – Graeme Smith, 1996 Atlanta, Bronze 1500m Freestyle, Steven Parry, 2004 Athens, Bronze 200m Butterfly; Kerry Ann Payne, 2008 Beijing 10k Open Water Silver and Cassandra Patten, 2008 Beijing 10k Open Water Bronze – plus 14 qualifying Olympians. He also coached James Goddard, 3 time Commonwealth Champion.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Claire Evans .