THE memories of the Olympics in London 2012 have hardly faded and yet Rio 2016 is rapidly approaching promising an exciting summer of Sport. Preparations have stepped up a gear for four City of Cardiff swimmers hoping to secure a place in Team GB.

At the beginning of January, Swim Wales organised a training camp on the Gold Coast for three weeks of intense training and conditioning for 10 of the top swimmers in Wales including CCSC’s Chloe Tutton, Harriet Jones, Xavier Mohammed and Penarth’s Ieuan Lloyd, plus head coach Graham Wardell.

The swimmers trained every day in the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre which will be the venue for the Commonwealth Games in 2018. It was an outstanding facility with five pools in the complex including two ten lane 50 metre pools.

At the end of the training camp, the team competed at the Victorian State Open Championships in Melbourne. This meet attracted many of the Australian swimming stars also preparing for Rio, including world record holder Mitch Larkin and rising stars Emma McKeown and Georgina Bohl.

The purpose of the meet was to consolidate on all of the hard work done prior to it, and as it was the first long course meet of the season best times were not expected, just the chance to race hard against world class opposition. However, the Cardiff swimmers put in some impressive swims from the start.

Penarth boy Ieuan Lloyd contested the finals of the 200 metre and 400 metre Freestyle, as well as the 200 metre IM. He swam his best time in four years in the 400 metre Freestyle, consolidating on the outstanding form he showed at the Welsh short course winter meet in December where he broke three Welsh records.

He previously swam for Team GB in the London Olympics and is now hoping to secure a place in the team when they head to Rio.

Chloe Tutton built on her successful Swim Wales Winter SC meet where she swam in record breaking pace in the 200 metre freestyle in 1:57.24 and the 100 metre breaststroke in 1:07.21. In Melbourne Chloe swam in an incredible 200 metre breaststroke final where the top three swam within a second of each other.

Chloe stormed home hard to scoop the bronze medal in a time of 2:25.82, which established a new Welsh record. She also made the finals of the 50 metre and 100 metre Breaststroke, setting best times in all three of her specialist events

Xavier Mohammed was another medal winner for the team, with a decisive silver medal in the 400 metre IM event. He was lying in fifth position after the opening butterfly leg and then gradually worked his way through the field to race to a great time of 4:21.77. He also made finals in the 100 metre and 200 metre Backstroke, 200 metre IM and 400 metre Freestyle.

Last, but not least for the team was Harriet Jones. Harriet set new best times in the 50 metre Butterfly, and made finals in this event as well as the 100 metre and 200 metre Butterfly. In the latter final, she missed a bronze medal by 0.05seconds, but had a great first meet in senior company.

Head coach Graham Wardell commented “It was a very good showing by all of the athletes, and is great preparation for the Olympic trials which are in April in Glasgow. I was very impressed by the high skill levels shown and the steps we have made to ensure the swimmers are at their very best for the trials”.