As her season nears the point of a first opportunity to meet the selection standard for October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Dalgety Bay swimmer Lucy Ellis has become Scotland’s Junior Swimmer of the Year for the second year in a row.

The award was a tribute to her 2009 season, one which she turned round from injury into her best yet.

“I don’t think many have managed to win it two years in a row so I was really pleased that I managed to do it again,” said 17-year-old Lucy.

It seems that every time Lucy steps into a pool she wins titles or breaks records.  

At last year’s British National Youth and Open Championships she became the national 16/17 year old 100m champion and 200m freestyle Open champion before winning the silver medal in the women’s 100m race.

Representing GB in the British Tri Nations event she won silver in the 200m freestyle and bronze in the 100m freestyle, before helping the team win silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay and bronze in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

In the British Grand Prix Open short course meet she achieved Scottish age group records and Scottish Junior records in the 50m and 100m butterfly, and the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle (the latter a Scottish senior record).
                              
Finishing the season in Amsterdam last December she broke the Scottish short course records in the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle.

A full time athlete for the past year, Lucy’s development has been helped massively by British Swimming’s Intensive Training Centre at Stirling University.  She is also on the books of the Central Scotland Institute of Sport, part of the sportscotland institute of sport’s regional network, which provides integrated support in the form of high performance expertise.   

A major advance in her support network is the British National Squad which she joined in November.

“If you’d asked me a year ago if I thought I could make the British National Squad I certainly wouldn’t have expected it,” she said. 

“I had been injured for three months, I was struggling to even make junior times.  But all the intense training at the ITC has paid off. 

“The national squad is for athletes who have potential for the London 2012 relay squad.  It’s about getting used to the other faces of other swimmers, building a bond because we are the group that are most likely to get to senior competitions.  We have a lot of training camps for all the swimmers with people like Becky Adlington.”

Lucy has been in just one competition this year; the Edinburgh International.  Yes, she broke yet more records but hadn’t intended to, the event falling in a period of heavy early season training.

The season starts proper in a fortnight’s time with the British National Championships in Sheffield, which carries the first opportunity to register a qualifying time for October’s Delhi Commonwealth Games and a trial for August’s European Championships in Budapest.

“I got the qualification times for the Commonwealth Games last season but they don’t count unless you have swum them in certain competitions,” said Lucy.

Meeting the selection standard does not in itself guarantee a place on the team.  Athletes achieving the selection standard will be nominated by Scottish Swimming to Commonwealth Games Scotland which will consider all nominations against the sport's selection policy before announcing the final team this August.

“But to already know I can make the times is a big confidence boost going into this competition.  The Commonwealth Games is a big aim for me this year and I feel I have a good chance to get into the team.”

RE-J