The Northampton SC Winter Festival brought the Aquatics GB Para-swimming World Class Performance Programme (WCPP) together at the close of 2025 for a fast weekend of long course racing.
Building upon the skills development work of the early season and recent sharpening of racing processes at the Home Nation Winter Meets in the short course pool, the Northampton SC Winter Festival at Corby East Midland International Pool provided a first long course racing opportunity of the season for the Para-swimming WCPP – taking place four months out from the fully-integrated Aquatics GB Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre in April 2026.
This primary part of the season often broadens a swimmer’s scope to experiment with their racing schedules before focusing in on core events at later qualification meets. For Brock Whiston, Iona Winnifrith and William Ellard that chance was taken up with the trio all setting European records in non-Paralympic events across the weekend.
Whiston set a new Women’s S8 200m Butterfly mark in both her heat and final to lower the European record to 2:04.61, while Ellard followed up his recent Men’s S14 400m Freestyle world record in the 25m pool with a long course European mark of 4:06.37.
Winnifrith reset the Women’s SB7 50m Breaststroke European record to 39.26, while Harry Stewart (Men’s SB14 50m Breaststroke – 29.53) and Bethany Firth (Women’s S14 50m Backstroke – 30.55) both additionally sprinted to new entries in the British record books.
Rounding out the records was another progression for Scarlett Humphrey in the Women’s S11 100m Freestyle event – setting a British record in the heats before dropping it further to 1:08.77 in her final.
The weekend also saw celebrations for Aquatics GB’s Para-swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year 2025, Bruce Dee, who saw in his 19th birthday on Saturday – just over a week on from his Men's SB6 100m Breaststroke short course world record at the Swim England Winter Nationals.
[Full results from the Northampton SC Winter Festival: https://www.swimmingmeetresults.co.uk/NSC/WFMeet25]
Tickets now on sale for the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships (14th-19th April 2026, London Aquatics Centre). View the schedule and purchase tickets online HERE.
