Development status for county's elite club

DERBYSHIRE'S developing reputation for producing top-quality swimmers has been recognised by the sport's national governing body.

Deventio eXcel have been named as one of British Swimming's select group of Podium and Development Clubs.

It is part of a plan to provide a world-leading daily training environment for athletes.

Three clubs will be endorsed at Podium level, including Nottingham's Nova Centurion, where double Olympic champion Becky Adlington trains.

Derventio are one of the five awarded Development status following analysis of club performances at major long course events and a review of world-class athletes training within a programme.

It means the elite Derbyshire squad will benefit from a British Swimming grant for a year.

Head coach Mark Rose confirmed the award before flying to Stockholm, where he will be part of the coaching team for the World Cup meeting at which Derventio's Emma Smithurst will represent Great Britain.

The cash will be spent over a 12-month period. It must be used to provide additional training and development work rather than simply subsidise the club's existing programme.

Derventio swimmers currently train for up to 20 hours a week and, apart from Smithurst, the club have produced Paralympian Dave Ellis and GB juniopr international Livvi Sefton.

Rose (pictured) said: "This is great news for us. It is a real feather in our cap and shows the way swimming in the county has developed. That development has now been recognised.

"The programme will run from the end of this month for a year and the grant can only be spent to expand our current programme.

"It has to be used to add value to what we already do.

"I'm already thinking about perhaps introducing some yoga or pilates and some of the other money could be used, for example, to hire a lane at the Loughborough University pool.

"There are a lot of ways I think we can improve our training progra-mme."