Freya Anderson is making a permanent switch to the Bath National Centre to train under Dave McNulty as a raft of British swimmers change their training bases after Tokyo 2020 was delayed for a year until July 2021.
Anderson, who was eighth in the 100 free at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, has been undertaking training blocks with McNulty over the last 12 months.
McNulty has achieved Olympic success with Siobhan O’Connor and Jazz Carlin and also includes Rio 2016 double silver medallist James Guy among his training group.
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Now the 19-year-old whose focus is on the 50, 100 and 200 free will make the move on a permanent basis from Ellesmere Titans where she had been coached by Alan Bircher for five years.
Also moving to Bath are triple European medallist and 200-800m specialist Holly Hibbott, who leaves Stockport Metro and Sean Kelly, and Leah Crisp, the double Commonwealth Youth Games champion and distance specialist from City of Leeds.
Anderson had been on scorching form this year before the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of sport events the world over with the Olympic Games the biggest casualty of them all.
She set new PBs in the 50 and 200 free at the Flanders Cup in January – to go third all-time in the latter – a month after claiming the 100/200 double at the European Short-Course Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
In a statement released by British Swimming, Anderson welcomed the ease of the move, saying:
“I’m really excited to get going in Bath and it’s a really good environment down there, with all the senior swimmers, which is something I’ve never had before as I’ve always trained at a junior level.
“The transition has felt really seamless; I went to Australia on the Bath camp, which was amazing.
“We spent three weeks out there in January/February time and then I’ve taken visits down to Bath to see myself on the underwater cameras and have a week training with the group, so I’m used to what it’s like down there already.”
Holly Hibbott who is en-route to Bath; Photo Courtesy: Singapore Swimming Federation
Anderson also paid tribute to Bircher, saying:
“I’m forever grateful for what Alan’s done with me and the programme at Ellesmere. It’s going to be sad as I’ve been there for five years, but I think it’s the right time to do it and have a new start.”
Also moving to Bath to join Jol Finck are European men’s 4×100 medley relay gold medallists Jacob Peters and Brodie Williams.
Cameron Kurle moves from Bath to the University of Stirling where he will join up with Duncan Scott, with whom he won 4×200 free gold at the 2018 European Championships, in Steven Tigg’s training group.
Anderson’s former Ellesmere team-mate Charlie Hutchison, a European junior medallist, will move to Dave Hemmings at Loughborough.