CITY of Hereford Swimming Club have continued their rise towards the top of British swimming by winning a fantastic 12 medals at the 2015 British and Home Nation National Championships.

This year saw a change to the national competition structure, with the top 24 swimmers in each event being invited to the British Championships.

Swimmers ranked 25-45 were selected for their home nation championships in England, Scotland or Wales, with City of Hereford representing all four events.

Star of the show was 14-year-old James Bilbao, who became only the second Herefordian swimmer in history to be crowned British National Champion.

The Bishop of Hereford Bluecoat School pupil, who has been swimming with Hereford since he was at primary school, won the 13/14 years 200m breaststroke title in a new county record time of 2:28.46.

In a thrilling race, James found himself almost two seconds behind at the half way stage, but clawed his way back to win the title by less than a second.

James also achieved a 5th place finish in the 100m breaststroke at the British Nationals, while competing in the 50m breaststroke and 400 individual medal at English Nationals.

Hereford had a second medallist at the British nationals in the shape of 14-year-old Grace Eddy.

Grace, who had earlier in the season competed at the Scottish Open National Championships in Glasgow, stormed to a Bronze medal in the 13/14 years girls 100m freestyle in a new personal best time of 58.77s.

Taking the race to her opposition down the first 50m, Grace turned in second position and held on in the second half of the race to grab her first British National medal.

Grace almost competed in the 200m freestyle, but narrowly missed out on a place in the final.

Fellow teenager Hugo Lemar was Herefords 3rd British national qualifier, with the 16-year-old competing in the 50, 100 and 200m backstroke events, making the final of the 200m and finishing in 8th position.

This rounded off an excellent season for Hugo, who won multiple regional titles earlier in the season, as well as being the sole Hereford swimmer at the World Championship Trials in London back in April.

At the Home Nationals, Hereford produced three medallists.

James Casewell, 12, competed at the Welsh Nationals in Swansea and won all three national titles in the 400m freestyle and 100m and 200 breaststroke.

He backed this up with further medals in the 200m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.

Calypso Harvey (17) and Nathan Wallace (14), were also medal winners at the English Nationals championships.

Endurance swimmer Calypso, who only joined the programme from Ledbury Swimming Club at the start of the season, continued her incredible progress to win silver medals in the 200m breaststroke and 400m freestyle, and grabbing a bronze in the 400m individual medley.

Nathan followed in the footsteps of his training partner James Bilbao, stepping up in the breaststroke events to win 2 medals.

He smashed an incredible nine seconds off his 200m time in one day to win a silver medal in 2:34.48, a time good enough to finish 8th at the British Nationals.

He also grabbed a bronze medal in the 100m event.

There was further home nations finals for Cobus Oosthuizen, who achieved a fourth placefinish in the gruelling 200m butterfly event at English Nationals, Patrick Meggitt, who raced the longer 1500m freestyle event, and Mary Yoxall, who made the long journey to Edinburgh for the Scottish Nationals.

She made finals in the 100 and 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley.

Head coach Alex Dallimore said his swimmers have exceeded expectations.

"This has been an amazing year for the club, and something that our swimmers, parents and volunteers should be extremely proud of," he said.

"James Bilbao winning a British National title is a fantastic achievement, and to have a second swimmer on the podium in Grace is something I have not stopped smiling about. "Then for our home nations athletes to back this up with another 10 medals is beyond what I could have hoped for”

Hereford will now go into the 2015/2016 season on a high, with the recently redeveloped Ross swimming pool now available.

Anyone interested in getting involved can email secretary@swimhereford.co.uk