Chase stars continue to make waves

Chase made a real splash at the Championships, which were held at the Stafford Leisure Centre pool, as they returned home with 33 gold, 31 silver and 35 bronze medals.

Head coach Paul Grainger was immensely proud of the performances in every one of the 392 swims amassed in different age groups.

“I’m really elated,” he stated. “We’ve always done very well and have been the top club in the county for a number of years now.

“This year we’ve had many older swimmers going off to Uni and getting experience there, so we’ve had the younger squad step up and do very well.

“It’s such a good feeling for me knowing that the future is bright.”

There are around 250 current members in the senior, junior, development, and learn-to-swim squads, with the club going from strength-to-strength.

Grainger, who has been coaching at Chase for nearly 30 years, is in buoyant mood and is greatly looking forward to the various upcoming championships where he hopes there will be more stories of success.

“We’ve got the Midlands Championships coming up and we have more qualifiers in that then I can remember for a number of years,” he said.

“We should have a number of swimmers that should qualify for all of the upcoming championships.

“The summer nationals is the biggest one, coming in August, and we have the British Championships in Glasgow, a big event for top swimmers in the country, where Caitlin Kilgallen will be competing in the 400m freestyle.”

Grainger has a long-list of swimming and coaching experience having been involved at the club for decades.

“I’ve been coaching at Chase for around 25 to 30 years now.

“I’m in charge of the main squad and have spent 15 to 18 years as head coach, I just love it.

“Paul Stanley, our junior coach has been with us a short while but he’s really stepped up as well.”

There were many stars for Chase at the county championships – Kilgallen was crowned champion in 100m and 200m freestyle and 400m individual medley while Hannah Buick came away with seven gold medals.

Even in the junior group Chase excelled, with 12-year-old Bethan Cooke breaking the 1500m freestyle county record and walking away with 14 golds.

Despite encouraging young, eager swimmers to join, Grainger claims that due to the success and vast number of swimmers at the club, places will be hard to come by.

“It’s hard because at the moment we don’t have many spaces available.

“I mean, I have about 28 swimmers in my section, the top group, and there are lots of other squads as well.

“We’re always actively looking for new pool spaces because we’re quite full, in fact I’m about to go off and look at a pool now!”