On the same weekend that Forden’s Andy Davies all but secured his spot in the Wales Commonwealth Games team with a superb London Marathon, a second local athlete took a huge step nearer to Gold Coast 2018.
Former Welshpool High School pupil Dan Jones (pictured) chipped away at his personal best at the weekend’s British Championships, where he set new personal best times in the 100m and 200m freestyle.
Meanwhile his younger brother Morgan has become a double Welsh champion showing that both are in the form of their lives with the Olympics very much on their radars.
Big brother Dan, who spent three weeks training in Australia earlier this year, clocked his new incredible times in Sheffield at the British Championships.
He was among Britain’s top swimmers, sharing his warm up lane with Adam Peaty and James Guy on one morning!
His personal bests in the 100m and 200m heats qualified him for the Tokyo Target finals, which were aimed at the 19-21 year old swimmers to show their talent and potential towards the next Olympics.
He then succeeded to get two more personal best times to finish fifth in the 100m and third in the 200m free.
He is chipping away nicely at his times towards the Commonwealth qualifying times which he hopes to achieve by the end of the year. He is due to compete in Cannes next month and then join his little brother, hopefully, in Sheffield in July at the GB Nationals.
While Dan trains in Swansea with their Aquatics Elite Performance Squad and Swim Wales Welsh National Squad, Morgan, 16, (pictured) remains local for schooling and swims with the Oswestry Otters but joins the Welsh Youth Commonwealth Potential Squad based in Swansea.
He is about to sit his GCSE exams at Welshpool High School but competed in Swansea at the Welsh Long Course National Championships. Out of the five events, he made four finals in the 17 and over category.
He did 11 swims in total with heats in the morning and finals in the evening. Incredibly he swam 11 personal best times over four days of swimming.
He is now Welsh Champion in the 50m and 100m backstroke and was runner-up in 100m butterfly and third in 50m fly.
Dan and the rest of Team Jones would like to say a huge thank you to Rikki Lloyd and Rambo and Chris Best Kebab for giving him much appreciated support and sponsorship over the last two years which has made a huge difference.