Manx teenager Ben Grainger competed in the National Para Swimming Championships at the Commonwealth pool in Manchester recently.

The weekend started well with the British Para Swimming coaching team meeting with Ben and his fellow athletes that have been inducted into the 2019 British Para Swimming Academy.

It was also confirmed that he is on the long list for Tokyo 2020 Paralympics consideration.

The national championship was held in the 50 metre pool, with Grainger competing in five events in his classification in the under-18 years age group: 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle, 200m individual medley and his favoured 100m breaststroke.

Ben had a head cold during the week running into the meet but felt better coming into race day. The first event was the 100m freestyle and he swam strongly to finish first, beating 16-year-old Connor Ballard from Leatherhead.

His next event was the 200IM which he again won, beating Charlie Coulam from Bridlington, before edging out the same swimmer to clinch the 50m freestyle after lunch.

The last event of the first day was the 100m breaststroke in which the Manx swimmer again triumphed, therefore regaining his British men’s SB9 number one ranking, beating Scotland’s Lewis Beagrie from Hamilton who has defeated him previously.

On the second day he competed in his last event of the weekend, the 400m freestyle. Ben swam a strong race to come a close second, less than a second behind Kieran Williams from Newquay.

Ben was just outside his personal bests in the events but it is early in the season for a long-course event and he feels extremely positive going into what will be a busy 2019.

He would like to thank all at Isle of Man Sport, Microgaming and Isle of Man Swimming for their continued support and wishes everyone a Happy Christmas.