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Make A Splash this Christmas

Just take a minute to consider how you can actually help a local club to try and achieve its dreams of making the Olympics in Rio next Year. Stockport Metro Swimming Club has just launched a fundraising appeal to help bring in the necessary money to take its talented and aspiring athletes to a dedicated training camp in the New Year.  The campaign is live NOW and will run until 3^rd January 2016 only, by which stage the minimum target of £2,400 has to be pledged.

Coach, Richard Blackshaw said:

“This Appeal is to help our swimmers attend a 4 week training camp based in Pretoria, South Africa. This camp is a specific Altitude camp and will allow the swimmers to make a physiological adaptation that can make a huge difference at International levels where 100th of a second divides 1st from 4th. Training at altitude is impossible within our own Country hence the reason to travel to countries abroad.”

Stockport Metro has enjoyed a long history of podium success across all age groups at County, Regional, National and International levels, breaking countless British and Commonwealth records. Since moving to Grand Central Pools fourteen athletes have qualified for the Olympic Games, and the Club has produced four Olympic medallists, making it the most successful in British history.

As with all sports, reward is measured on performance and following the London 2012 Olympics the governing body suffered funding cuts, the cuts have been significant and since 2012 Stockport Metro funding has been cut until in 2015 we are no longer receiving any funding at all – which in the past has enabled our athletes to have the best environment and attend altitude camps.

All the successful athletes in its history attended altitude training camps during their 4 year Olympic cycles. Steve Parry and Graeme Smith both won bronze medals in Athens and Atlanta respectively. Adrian Turner was a semi-finalist in Atlanta. James Goddard, a Commonwealth Triple gold medallist, narrowly missed out on a medal in Athens.

Five Metro swimmers competed in Beijing: Keri-Anne Payne who took the silver in the inaugural 10K Marathon Open Water event, Cassie Patten took the bronze in the same event, Michael Rock, James Goddard and David Carry. A further five Metro swimmers competed in the London 2012 games, Keri-Anne Payne, Michael Rock, David Carry, James Goddard and Sophie Allen.

Stockport Metro’s key objective is to develop the next generation of World Class Athletes and give them the opportunity to be successful on the senior international stage. With the current group of swimmers coming through the pathway times are extremely exciting. If anyone watched the recent European Championships in Baku, seeing Holly Hibbott, aged only 15, becoming Champion in the 800 freestyle beating the best of Europe or Katie Matts winning a Bronze at the World Junior Championships in Singapore will have seen the potential and what an outstanding achievement it was, but the ambition, philosophy or track record is not to produce successful junior athletes but to produce successful senior athletes. Metro seek to achieve this with your help. Holly and Katie are but two of the talents among the British National Champions of 2015. Director of Performance, Sean Kelly, former Head Coach of the Stockport ITC, has been on the GB coaching team for the past two Olympic Games. He is one of the most successful coaches in British history in terms of podium success, and has twice been honoured with the GB Coach of the Year award.

The Fundraising Appeal is being conducted on the website link: https://uk.sponsorise.me/en/project-stockport-metro

Donations are being accepted from as little as £1 so everyone can help the cause.  For donations, each person will receive a range of exciting rewards including: messages from our swimmers on social media, personalised letters from a swimmer, signed swimming caps, signed t-shirt, entry to a select raffle, personalised tuition with a member of the Stockport Metro Performance Squad, advert in the events programmes for a full twelve months or all of the above.

Please contribute whatever you can – or maybe make a donation instead of buying and sending out Christmas Cards this Year or you can even buy one of the superb offerings as a present. 

Let’s put Stockport on the map again in Rio.

Note to Editor:

1. Photo of Fundraising Appeal website at Sponsorise.Me (web site address: https://uk.sponsorise.me/ enclosed)
2. More information: Julie Bennett, Swimming Development Manager 07919 004070
3. Anyone interested in sponsoring Stockport Metro can contact adrian@fcsportsmarketing.com