More GB glory for Chorley swimmer Mark Tompsett
Chorley swimmer Mark Tompsett has continued to do his country proud on the international stage, adding a gold medal to his Paralympic bronze.
The teenager’s record-breaking start to 2025 suggests his second competitive season will be just as remarkable as his dazzling debut campaign last year, when Mark won 100m backstroke bronze at the Paris Games in September.
Mark has now won gold in a world-class field as one three GB swimmers to triumph at the Para Swimming World Series event in Barcelona.
Mark, who competes in the S14 category for athletes with an intellectual impairment, triumphed in 59.80secs in the 100m as the World Series visited the Spanish city for the first time.
William Ellard and Iona Winnifrith were the other members of the eight-strong GB team to grab gold at this third World Series event of the year.
Mark then broke the European 100m record twice in a day on his way to glory in the Multi-Class Para final at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in London last month.
His winning time of 58.28 at the London Aquatics Centre took a further 0.49seconds off the S14 European benchmark he had set in the preliminary stages.
Such a superb start to the year has seen Mark named in the first group of GB representatives for the World Para Swimming Championships to take place in Singapore in September.
This initial group of 14 bids to build on Great Britain’s swimming successes in the Paralympics, where their 32 medals (18 gold, eight silver, six bronze) left GB ranked second in the world.
Mark joins a team containing 11 Paralympic champions as he looks forward to representing his country at the Worlds for the first time.
A member of the Bolton Metro squad, Mark has been swimming since the age of two and will always be grateful to the Chorley Marlins club for setting him on the road to success in the pool.
Mark has become a hugely popular figure around his home town, with pupils delighted to see him and his medals on visits to local schools.
St Peter's CE Primary is among those to have given Mark the warmest of welcomes.