Sport / Okroj makes a big splash at Sheffield Next Gen swimming championships
TEENAGE swimmer Julian Okroj has had an impressive time in the pool over the past two weeks, smashing personal bests along the way.
The 14-year-old represented Shetland at the Island Games in Orkney this month, where he made two finals in his debut appearance, before leaving the team early to travel to Sheffield for the GB Aquatics Next Gen Championships.
This is an invite-only event for the top 20 swimmers in each event across the UK.
Julian qualified for an impressive nine events at this prestigious meet, reaching the finals in seven of them.
He opened his campaign with the 200m freestyle, advancing from the heats to the final and finishing seventh in his age group with a new personal best.
Julian then took on the 200m butterfly, improving his seeded position from 17th to 15th.
With little rest he returned to the pool for the 100m backstroke, where he swam well but narrowly missed the final, placing 11th.
Julian continued his strong performance in the 100m freestyle, setting another PB and making the final, where he finished 10th overall – an impressive jump from his initial seeding of 19th.
In the 100m butterfly, where he was seeded 20th, he qualified for the final and finished seventh, taking over two seconds off his previous best.
In the 200m individual medley he made another final, improving his time by more than two seconds and finishing eighth in his age group.
On the final day of the championships Julian swam the 400m freestyle, where he was seeded 20th.
He delivered a remarkable swim in the heats to qualify for the final and finished sixth overall, improving his position by 14 places and taking an impressive 10 seconds off his PB.
He finished his meet with the 200m backstroke where he was seeded 14th, and gave everything he had left to make the final and place ninth with a three-second PB.
Delting Dolphins said they were extremely proud of Julian’s achievements at this major event and wished to thank NorthLink Ferries for its continued sponsorship, as well as the Shetland Community Benefit Fund for helping with expenses for the trip.
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