Three Wigan Best swimmers in 20-strong North West team for major competition

Jennifer Green, Hannah Sheehan and Jodie Grittins are in a 20-strong team representing the north west at the event in Crawley on March 23-24.

And what makes their call-up even more impressive, the Wigan trio make up three of the four relay-team in the Year 11-plus category.

It is the most number of swimmers Wigan Best has ever had competing at the event. And the club’s assistant coach Chris Suggitt will take charge of the north west team, which will compete against regions from across the country in three different age categories.

Winners will go on to face champions from Scotland, Wales and Ireland in a four-way Championships.

Their qualification is the latest success for the Wigan Best club, which is growing in strength. Head coach Les France said: “It’s fantastic to see. If you look at where we were in the 80s and 90s with Wigan Wasps, we lost the international pool and it has been a hard journey back to get us where we are now. But we’re seeing the results across the board and we’re now one of the top competing clubs nationally.

“All of which couldn’t be done without the effort of the swimmers, the support they receive, the swimming clubs and Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles.”

Wigan Best has swimmers from the borough’s six clubs – Tyldesley, Howe Bridge, Leigh and Atherton, Hindley, Wigan and Ashton – and after back-to-back promotions, are now ranked 30th in 300-plus across the country.

They recently collected a haul of 20 golds, 21 silvers and 36 bronzes from the County Championships.