Last year’s winners of the Bradford Sports Awards, “Young Team of the Year”, City of Bradford Artistic Swimming, has once again retained their title of being Yorkshire Champions.

Holding it previously as Halifax Synchronised Swimming Club, after moving to City of Bradford in 2022, they train at Shipley Pool and have continued their winning ways.

39 swimmers aged from 8 to over 40, represented Bradford in the annual Spring competition held at John Charles Centre for Sport at the weekend.

Competing against teams from City of Leeds, South Yorkshire, Borough of Kirklees along with invitational teams from Derbyshire and Gateshead, including some in the Team GB development pathway, Bradford won over 16 medals for their duets and team routines, and 13 individual medals.

This success meant City of Bradford Artistic Swimming was also awarded the Millennium Cup for the Yorkshire club scoring the most points overall in the competition.

Their next challenge is the Swim England National Combo Cup and National Masters Championships which are to be held at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield in early July. After last year’s competition, when they were ranked 7th in the UK, they hope to perform well.

Head coach, Charlotte Hughes said: “There were some fabulous routines swum by the teams and we achieved amazing results overall.

“The swimmers have trained very hard and continue to improve each week. We are delighted to win the Millennium Cup for another year, and we look ahead now to our final challenge of the competition year, the National Combo Cup”.

Kirsty McGregor, parent and team manager said: “All swimmers performed very well, but with our youngest teams, Pearls and Rubies, both winning gold at this event for the first time this year, against very tough competition, it shows that the future of the club is very bright.

“With the support of the swimming club, Shipley Pool and Bradford Aquatics Programme, and with our excellent coaches, we continue to look for competent swimmers from across the Bradford area who we can develop into brilliant competitive athletes. We look forward to opening our Beginners’ Academy again for new members very shortly.”

The sport is gaining momentum as Team GB had a record medal haul at last week’s European Championships in Serbia, winning seven medals in nine events across the five days of competition.

It will continue to gain profile as the duet of Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe will compete in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after winning a silver medal in the Tech Duet and bronze in the Free Duet in the World Aquatics Championships in Doha in February - the first-ever global duet medals for Britain in artistic swimming. for the Olympics in Paris next month.