Daniel Jervis is preparing to live out his boyhood dream of becoming an Olympian after delivering on his promise to “smash it” on super Sunday. Wales’ Commonwealth Games silver medalist is set to be in Tokyo for the Games this summer after winning the men’s 1500m freestyle final in the final session of the British Swimming selection trials in London. After winning the 800m but narrowly missing out on the selection time earlier in the week, Jervis delivered the dominant performance he had promised in the longer event.

Welsh swimmers returned to competition last month, but it’s only a toe in the water ahead of the Olympic Games this summer and many more strange, new Covid-compliant races will be required before Tokyo, as Graham Thomas reports. Dan Jervis has been praised for his immediate return to form but he and the rest of Welsh swimming’s elite need more competition. That’s the call from Swim Wales performance director Ross Nicholas after Jervis, Georgia Davies and a number of other leading Welsh swimmers got back to racing in the pool at the recent Manchester International Swim Meet.

Harriet West shattered the Welsh 50m butterfly record at the International Swimming League meeting in Budapest. The Loughborough-based swimmer clocked 26.02 secs competing for London Roar.

Seven Welsh swimmers have been named in British Swimming’s World Class Programme for 2020/21. Georgia Davies (Energy Standard), Calum Jarvis (Bath NC) and Alys Thomas (Swim Swansea) have been named in the Podium programme.

Welsh swimming will plunge into 2020 with two familiar faces leading the way, but reasons for optimism that results and performances in 2019 suggest new names are on the near horizon as Graham Thomas reports. Georgia Davies and Alys Thomas may be defying age as well as the traditional perceptions of swimmers, but there are plenty of rising Welsh stars following in their slipstream. The recent Welsh Winter National Short Course Championships proved the point with a host of eye-catching performances from the next generation.

He may still be only 16, but Welsh swimming sensation Matt Richards already has his eyes set on next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. Those same eyes are on Japan for the next few weeks, too, as the young Welsh rugby fan tells Liz Byrnes. Matt Richards gave his parents a hint of what was to come when he was only a five-year-old on a family holiday in Tenerife. Disgruntled by having to wear armbands in the pool while other, older children didn’t, he marched up to his mother and father, told them he’d had enough and threw the armbands on the chair.

Matt Richards completed the medal hat-trick at the European Junior Championships as he struck 200m Freestyle silver on the final night in Kazan. The 16-year-old sensation smashed his person al best again as he added to his 100m Freestyle gold and bronze in the 4x10o Freestyle Relay in Russia.

Teenage Welsh swim sensation Matt Richards will be heading home from the European Junior Championships in Kazan, Russia, with a gold medal around his neck. The 16-year-old Droitwich-based Richards followed up his bronze medal with the British 4 x 100m freestyle relay team with a brilliant triumph in the 100m freestyle in a personal best time – confirming his status as one of the rising stars of British swimming. Having won his heat in 49.91 sec – one of only three swimmers in the nine heats to crack the 50 sec barrier – he went even quicker in the semi-finals, recording the fastest time of 49.50 sec. But he saved his best for last as he dominated the final to win in 48.88 sec.

Alys Thomas added the 100m butterfly title to her 200m gold while Lewis Fraser broke the Welsh 50m butterfly record on a night when the promise of youth and the rewards that come from resilience were all on display as the British Swimming Championships concluded in Glasgow. While 28-year-old Thomas clinched her golden double an eye-opening meet concluded for 16-year-old Matt Richards who was seventh in the 200m freestyle, twice lowering the British Age Group record on the final day.