2000s

European Junior Championships, Prague

Stephen Water­house rep­re­sent­ed GB at the Euro­pean Senior and Junior Open Water Cham­pi­onships. Emma Gra­ham and Rachel Gar­den­er swam for GB at the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in Belgrade. 

City of Leeds was top club at the ASA Nation­al Age Group Championships. 

In Decem­ber, Dave Calle­ja was appoint­ed Chief Coach. 

European Junior Championships, Belgrade

European Open Water Championships, Dubrovnik

Emma Gra­ham made her inter­na­tion­al debut rep­re­sent­ing Great Britain at the Euro­pean Youth Olympic Fes­ti­val in Belgrade. 

Rachel Jack rep­re­sent­ed GB at the Euro­pean Junior Open Water Cham­pi­onships, Milan. 

City of Leeds won the top team award at the ASA Nation­al Age Group Championships. 

Richard Deni­gan took over as Head Age Group Coach. 

In Novem­ber, the club moved its head­quar­ters to the new Aquat­ics Cen­tre at the John Charles Cen­tre for Sport and said farewell to the Leeds Inter­na­tion­al Pool which sub­se­quent­ly closed. 

Ian Greyson resigned as Chief Coach in Decem­ber and Louise Gra­ham took over as act­ing Chief Coach. 

European Youth Olympic Festival, Belgrade

European Junior Open Water Championships, Milan

Rachel Jack rep­re­sent­ed GB at the FINA Open Water World Cup in Seville. 

FINA Open Water World Cup, Seville

In April 2005 City of Leeds came 3^rd in a hard fought Nation­al Speedo Swim League Cham­pi­onship. In June of this year the club lost one of its long serv­ing coach­es Kei­th Book­er, his mem­o­ry will live on at the club forever. 

Liam Smith rep­re­sent­ed GB at the Euro­pean SC Cham­pi­onships and at the Euro­pean Junior Championships. 

European SC Championships, Trieste

European Junior Championships, Budapest

In April 2004 City of Leeds won the Nation­al Speedo Swim League Cham­pi­onship for the 18^th time. Gavin Mead­ows rep­re­sent­ed GB in the Athens Olympics and Liam Smith was select­ed for the Euro­pean Short Course Cham­pi­onships. Claire Hud­dart, now a coach at the club after a suc­cess­ful swim­ming car­rer, was select­ed as Assis­tant Team Man­ag­er for the Olympic Games in Athens. We also had a Par­a­lympian in 2004 with Aidan McG­lynn com­pet­ing in his first games, fin­ish­ing 19^th. 

Karen Nis­bet, Liam Smith, Rebec­ca Shaw and Gavin Mead­ows swam for GB in the Euro­pean SC Championships. 

In July we had ASA Nation­al Age Groups where we gained 5 gold, 3 sil­ver and 4 bronze – We were crowned top Age Group Team 2004 (11^th time) and Top Boys Team 2004. 

Olympic Games, Athens

Paralympic Games, Athens

European Short Course Championships, Vienna

Ter­ry Deni­son retired at the end of March and a din­ner was held to mark his 35 years of coach­ing at City of Leeds dur­ing which 150 Leeds swim­mers had gained inter­na­tion­al hon­ours with 17 swim­ming at the Olympic Games, win­ning one Olympic gold and one Olympic bronze and being involved in set­ting 9 World Records. Over 350 past and present swim­mers and offi­cials attend­ed the din­ner and many old friend­ships were renewed. 

New­ly appoint­ed Chief Coach, Ian Greyson, had imme­di­ate suc­cess with our 17^th win in the Nation­al Swim League Final. Liam Smith was select­ed for the Euro­pean Youth Olympic Fes­ti­val, Mar­tin Web­ster swam in the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships and Gavin Mead­ows, Karen Nis­bet and Rebec­ca Shaw were select­ed to rep­re­sent GB in the Euro­pean Short Course Championships. 

As Ian Greyson moved up to be Chief Coach, Louise Gra­ham became Senior Age Group Coach and Andrew Scan­lon was appoint­ed as Age Group Coach. 

European Short Course Championships, Dublin

European Junior Championships, Glasgow

European Youth Olympic Festival, Paris

British Nation­als took place in April once again and we won 1 gold, 2 sil­vers and 3 bronzes. Also in April at the World SC Cham­pi­onships in Moscow, James Hick­man won the 200m but­ter­fly for the 4^th con­sec­u­tive time – the first per­son to achieve this unique feat. James went on to win sil­ver and bronze in the Com­mon­wealth Games in Man­ches­ter where he was joined by City of Leeds swim­mers Stu­art Trees and Karen Nisbet. 

In ASA Senior Nation­als in June, we won 4 golds, 3 sil­vers and 3 bronzes and at the British SC Nation­als in Sep­tem­ber we won 3 golds, 4 sil­vers and 2 bronzes. James Hick­man and Gavin Mead­ows were cho­sen to rep­re­sent Great Britain in in the Euro­pean SC Cham­pi­onships in December. 

In age group swim­ming we were the top club at the Nation­al Age Group and Youth Cham­pi­onships in August win­ning 17 golds, 8 sil­vers and 10 bronzes. Julia Pre­ston, Dani Place, Mar­tin Web­ster and Tom Her­bert rep­re­sent­ed GB Juniors in the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in July with Mar­tin win­ning a bronze in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. 

As a result of our Nation­al Age Group per­for­mances we had 15 swim­mers select­ed for 2003 World Class Per­for­mance, Poten­tial and Start squads with Ian Greyson as Head Age Group Coach and Louise Gra­ham as Start Squad Coach. 

Chief Coach, Ter­ry Deni­son, announced that he would be retir­ing from coach­ing in March 2003 after 30 years as Chief Coach of City of Leeds SC. 

Commonwealth Games, Manchester

World Short Course Championships, Moscow

European Short Course Championships, Riesa

European Junior Championships, Linz

National Champions

The arrival of the new Nation­al Per­for­mance Direc­tor brought major changes in the com­pet­i­tive programme. 

In April we had British Nation­als. We gained 1 gold, 1 sil­ver and 1 bronze. Julia Pre­ston and Claire John­son gained selec­tion for the Euro­pean Junior Cham­pi­onships in Mal­ta in July. Both swam per­son best times and Julia gained an excel­lent bronze medal in the 400m IM. 

Tom Her­bert, Mar­tin Web­ster, Ryan Web­ster, Yvette Hay­den and Danielle Place were select­ed to rep­re­sent Great Britain Juniors in the Euro­pean Youth Olympic Days in Spain in July. Tom gained sil­ver in 1500m freestyle, Mar­tin gained sil­ver in the relay and Yvette gained bronze in the relay. Ian Greyson was team coach. 

David Fod­den was select­ed as Team Doc­tor for the World Cham­pi­onships in Japan in July. 

In July we had ASA Nation­als and gained 7 gold, 4 sil­ver and 3 bronzes. 

In July we had ASA Nation­al Age Groups where we gained 12 gold, 15 sil­ver and 12 bronze – our best ever medal total at Nation­al Age Groups. 

In Feb­ru­ary Mona Deni­son retired from our coach­ing team after 40 years of coach­ing swim­ming in Leeds. We also lost 3 senior swim­mers in Gavin Mead­ows and Emma Dut­ton, who moved to col­lege in Amer­i­ca, and Claire Hud­dart who retired from swim­ming after an out­stand­ing career of 2 Olympic Games, 2 Com­mon­wealth Games and one World Record as part of our ladies 4 x 200m freestyle relay at the 2000 World Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Athens. 

How­ev­er, the future is bright for City of Leeds Swim­mming Club as can be seen from the excel­lent results at Nation­al Age Groups. 

World Championships, Fukuoka

European Short Course Championships, Antwerp

European Junior Championships, Malta

European Youth Olympic Festival, Murcia

National Champions

The 2000 Olympic Games was the peak of the year with 15 World Records, 30 Olympic Records and 17,000 spec­ta­tors per ses­sion in Syd­ney. City of Leeds had 5 rep­re­sen­ta­tives at the Games: 

• James Hick­man 100m fly, 200m fly, med­ley relay
• Claire Hud­dart 4 x 200m freestyle relay
• Div­er: Sal­ly freeman
• Coach: Ter­ry Denison
• Team Doc­tor: David Fodden
• James reached semi finals in his events and Claire helped the relay into the final.

At Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships we had an excel­lent year with 17 gold, 12 sil­ver and 5 bronze medals. 

Claire John­son, Julia Pre­ston and Sal­ly Rus­batch and coach Ian Greyson all rep­re­sent­ed GB Juniors dur­ing the year. 

In Senior Swim­ming Claire Hud­dart was part of the Gold Medal win­ning 4 x 200m freestyle relay who set a World Record at the World Short Course Championships. 

James Hick­man retained his World Cham­pi­onship 200m fly title for the third time and Stu­art Trees also rep­re­sent­ed Great Britain in the World Short Course Cham­pi­onships in Athens. 

Ter­ry Deni­son was team coach and David Fod­den, Team Doctor. 

Olympic Games, Sydney

World Short Course Championships, Athens

European Championships, Helsinki

European Short Course Championships, Valencia

European Junior Championships, Dunkerque

National Champions