Leah Schlosshan's double bronze at British Championships hailed as perfectly timed by City of Leeds coach Richard Denigan

The European junior champion in the 200m individual medley claimed a bronze medal in the senior race over that distance at the British Championships at Ponds Forge last week.

Bradford Grammar School pupil Schlosshan, 18, also claimed a bronze behind the same two swimmers in the 400m individual medley, and finished fourth in the 100m breaststroke and touched the wall in sixth in the 200m freestyle.

A place on the Great Britain team announced on Wednesday for the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoko, Japan, in July might be beyond her this time, but adding more medals at the European Junior Championships and competing in the European Under-23s Championships later this summer is definitely on the radar. That is because she delivered when it mattered most, believes her City of Leeds coach Richard Denigan, with last week’s nationals counting as qualifiers for all the summer’s big meets.

"Very good progress, she swum best times in everything, so it was a good step forwards for her from European juniors,” said Denigan of the club’s leading light following her gold medal at last year’s continental meet in Romania.

"She’s probably a little bit ahead of where I thought she would be to be fair, I always hoped that going into the trials she’d be in a position to contend and she did that.

"Because you’ve got to do it at the trials, there’s no point doing it in the summer, you’ve got to do it at the trials first, so the fact that she’s taken a big step forward at the trials first is really encouraging.”

Another 18-year-old in Katie Shanahan and Abbie Wood, 24, might be ahead of her on the podium in the medley races at the minute, and likely bound for the senior worlds in Japan this summer, but another season on the junior circuit building a reputation will be beneficial to Schlosshan as she looks towards a strong summer next year with the Paris Olympics in mind.

"If she can move it on a little bit again in the summer, she’ll get even closer to those two girls that have qualified for world championships,” offered Denigan.

"We’ve just got to keep trying to bridge that gap technically and physiologically.”

The six-day meet was a prosperous one for not just the British swimming community that is finally back to full speed after the Covid-interrupted years, but also City of Leeds Swimming Club, based out of John Charles Aquatics Centre.

Where host club City of Sheffield could boast 42 swimmers competing, their allies up the M1 sent a more modest squad of 14 athletes.

"We had multiple finalists, we had between 14 and 18 finalists and we only had 14 swimmers there, so it’s not a bad return,” said Denigan.

"Hopefully what Leah is doing is inspiring the rest of the squad. What she’s doing at the minute is not new to us, for example her sister went to world juniors and European juniors.

"In my time alone we’ve had 51 international medals in 10 years - it’s what we do. It’s a common thing for us, it’s our ambition to put our swimmers on international teams, whether they’re junior or senior, to go there and contribute, not just make up the numbers.”

Pontefract’s Joe Litchfield will learn today the extent of his role on the British squad at this summer’s world championships.

The 24-year-old Tokyo Olympian is in the mix for the relay squads.