Great Britain retained their top team title at the 11th World Down Syndrome Swimming & Artistic Championships in Antalya, Turkiye. The Championships were held over the week 19-26 March 2024 as part of the World Trisomy Games comprising 8 sports – athletics, basketball, futsal, gymnastics, judo, swimming, tennis and table tennis.
Down Syndrome Swimming Great Britain took a team of 29 swimmers (15 male and 14 female including 2 female Mosaic swimmers) to Antalya to compete at the championships with 25 countries taking part at the event in Southern Turkey. There was a total of 95 male swimmers (including 5 Mosaic) and 72 female swimmers (including 10 Mosaic).
This was the first event to take place at the very recently constructed 50m swimming pool at the Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey.
The GB team had prepared well in the build-up to the Championships and responded brilliantly to the pressure on the biggest stage to repeat their 2022 Best Team ranking. Thanks to the superb efforts of everyone involved they came home with an impressive haul of 31 medals, numerous World and European records and the Best Team 2024 trophy.
They won 15 gold, 7 silver and 9 bronze medals and attained 1,146 points to go clear of Portugal (662 points), Mexico (655 points), Italy (647) and France (546) in the overall points table.
Ellen Stephenson of Richmond Dales came away with the Top Female Mosaic swimmer award and Female Mosaic most valuable swimmer (excluding points for World Records) after winning seven gold medals (100m Free, 400m Free, 800m Free, 1500m Free, 50m Back, 100m Back and 200m Back) and one silver medal (200m Free) setting 6 Mosaic World Records in 100m Free, 800m Free, 1500mm Free, 50m Back, 100m Back and 200m Back.
Mark Evens, Team Captain won 3 Gold medals for 400m Free, 800m Free & 1500m Free, 1 Silver medal for 100m Fly, 1 Bronze medal for 200m Free plus 3 relay medals. Mark was named male T21 most valuable swimmer at the Champs (excluding points for World Records).
Alex Edwards (Mosaic) – 1 Gold medal 200m Butterfly (new Mosaic World Record), 3 Silver medals for 100m Back, 50m Fly, 50m Back & 1 Bronze medal for 100m Free.
Zac Lacey – Gold medal 200m Fly
Amalia Freeland – Silver medal for 200m IM, 3 Bronze medals for 50m Fly, 100m Fly, & 100m Free
Jemima Rudd-Jones – Bronze medal 200m Fly
Caroline Faithfull – Bronze medal 1500m Free
Jack Lyons – Bronze medal 50m Breaststroke
The British relay teams also had fantastic success, winning 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal, breaking 2 World Records and a European Record.
Mixed 4 x 100m Free Relay – Gold medal and new World Record – Jack Lyons, Amalia Freeland, Caitlin Hatfield & Mark Evens
Mixed 4 x 100m Medley Relay – Gold medal and new European Record – Amalia Freeland, Holly Sullivan, Zac Lacey & Mark Evens
Women’s 4 x 200m Free Relay – Gold medal and new World Record – Caroline Faithfull, Cerys McCrindle, Amalia Freeland & Caitlin Hatfield
Women’s 4 x 100m Free Relay – Silver medal – Scarlett Jones, Caroline Faithfull, Cerys McCrindle & Caitlin Hatfield
Men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay – Bronze medal – Dylan Williams, William Reed, Zac Lacey & Mark Evens
GB Team Points (including points for World Records)
| Mark Evens | 87 |
| Ellen Stephenson | 82 |
| Amalia Freeland | 62 |
| Caitlin Hatfield | 54 |
| Alex Edwards | 43 |
| Zac Lacey | 42.5 |
| Caroline Faithfull | 32.5 |
| Cerys McCrindle | 27.5 |
| Jack Lyons | 25.5 |
| William Roberts | 19 |
| Will Reed | 16.5 |
| Will Browning | 14 |
| Scarlett Jones | 10 |
| Holly Sullivan | 9 |
| Jemima Rudd-Jones | 9 |
| Mark Holmes | 9 |
| Dylan Williams | 7.5 |
| Lizzie Allen | 6 |
| Laura Logan | 2 |
| Kathryn Martin | 1 |
The squad included two newcomers (Dorian Williams and Scarlett Jones) for whom this was their first international competition. Both performed extremely well and handled the pressure admirably. Scarlett was reserve for two finals and came 7th in the open 200m freestyle final, breaking the junior European Record.
Following the team’s success, head coach Neil Lacey said:
“The competition in Turkey has been a tough five days with the standards in the pool at the highest level ever. The Great Britain team has risen to the challenge and produced some outstanding performances with several World Champions and new World Records set across many events.
Special mention should go to Ellen Stephenson for 6 World records from 8 events, Team Captain Mark Evens for being the ‘most valuable swimmer’ and the GB relay teams who won medals in five of the eight relays and set 2 new World Records and a European Record in the process.
A huge thank you should go to all the swimmers’ clubs and teams back home, a very proud time to be a GB team member.”
Click here to see all the results from the World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships 2024.
Down Syndrome Swimming GB squad and staff for the World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships 2024:
Lizzie Allen, Oswestry Otters/Alton & District SC
Holly Bocking, Colchester Phoenix ASC
William Browning, Tadcaster York Sport Swim Squad/Tadcaster Stingrays
Daniel Daley, Cheshire Penguins/City of Manchester Aquatics
Alex Edwards, Bristol Penguin Olympic SC
Mark Evens (captain), Hitchin SC
Caroline Faithfull, Taunton Deane SC
Amalia Freeland, Leander SC
Beth Greig, Arbroath St Thomas SC
Caitlin Hatfield, Winchester Penguins SC
Mark Holmes, Colchester Phoenix ASC/West Suffolk SC
Dylan Hughes, Oswestry Otters SC/City of Newport S&WPC
Scarlett Jones, Darlington ASC/ NE Disability SC
Zac Lacey, Seaclose SC/IoW Swim Team
Laura Logan, South Ayrshire Swim Team
Jack Lyons, Sharks of Mottingham
Conor Macauley-Conway, Kingston Royals SC/Evans Swim School
Kathryn Martin, Bracknell & Wokingham SC Masters
Matthew McCreadie, Inverness ASC/Highland Swim Team
Cerys McCrindle, South Ayrshire Swim Team
Thomas Raddings, City of Wakefield SC
William Reed, Teddington SC Masters
William Roberts, PSOSG/St Ives SC
Stephane Rouyer-Brown, Runnymede SC/East Essex Tri Club
Jemima Rudd-Jones, RTW Monson SC
Ellen Stephenson, Richmond Dales ASC/NE Disability SC
Holly Sullivan, Swindon ASC
Dorian Williams, Trowbridge ASC
Dylan Williams, Torfaen Dolphins SC/Oswestry Otters
Poolside Staff
Neil Lacey, head coach
Julie Evens, team manager
Kathryn Stephenson, team doctor
Alex Freeland
Betty Logan
Terry Raddings
Sandra Proudfoot
Andrea Manson
Ian Logan
Joh Sydenham
Beatrice Rouyer-Brown
British Down Syndrome Swimming Championships 2024
The team are now preparing for this year’s British Down Syndrome Swimming Championships.
The event returns to K2, Crawley on 16-17 November 2024. Entries for the competition will close on 26 October. Information about the event, including how to enter can be found on the DSS-GB website https://www.dss-gb.org/sign-up/
We are always keen to identify new talent and the Championships are a key event to spot up and coming swimmers.
All strokes and distances. 25m races for novices.
Ellen Stephenson
MVP & Top Performing female Mosaic swimmer
Mark Evens
(captain) with Best Team trophy
World Record and World Champions 4×200 Freestyle relay
Caroline Faithfull, Cerys McCrindle, Amalia Freeland & Caitlin Hatfield
Mixed 4 x 100m Free Relay
Gold medal and new World Record – Jack Lyons, Amalia Freeland, Caitlin Hatfield & Mark Evens
Best Team, World Championships 2024
Mixed 4 x 100m Medley Relay
Gold medal and new European Record – Amalia Freeland, Holly Sullivan, Zac Lacey & Mark Evens
Newly constructed 50m pool
at Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkiye
Trisome Games
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