THE success of a Denbighshire youth swimming team in a national competition has been hailed by the coach of a Rhyl club.

The Denbighshire development team, made up of 45 of the county’s best young swimmers, won 70 medals and topped the leaderboard at the 38th Robin Hood Open Meet, a two-day UK swimming competition held in Sheffield.

The squad included 16 swimmers – aged from nine to 19 – from the Rhyl Dolphins swimming club, as well as from Denbigh, Ruthin and Corwen swimming clubs.

They amassed 22 gold, 27 silver and 21 bronze medals.

Bob Nuttall, head coach of the Rhyl Dolphins said: “From the Rhyl point of view, the whole concept of having a Denbighshire-wide team where our swimmers can come together with people from across the county to train and compete with is working exceptionally well.

“We came second in the 11-year-old boys category and had a few golds and silvers of our own, along with a lot of personal bests, so it’s great to be a part of this.”

The Denbighshire youngsters competed against more than 20 other teams from Wales, England and Scotland across 291 events, ranging from 50-metres butterfly to 200m backstroke and 400m front crawl.

Justin Jones, head coach at Denbigh Dragons and DTT, said: “This is the development team’s first major success since it was established 10 years ago.

“There were many outstanding performances from the team.”

He added: “We were ahead after the first day but we didn’t inform the swimmers because we didn’t want to put pressure on them. 

“We wanted them to continue swimming as well as they had been.

“The team really integrated well. We train four times a year and took part in team building exercises.

“The coaches at Rhyl, Ruthin and Corwen put a lot of work in.

“There was great support from parents, too.”

Rhyl, Denbigh, Ruthin and Corwen swimming clubs welcome new members. 

For more information, contact the towns’ respective leisure centres.