Daniel Sliwinski, a Sixth Form pupil at Bolton School, is now ranked number one in the world in the 18 year old and under category for 100m breaststroke.  He recorded a time of 1.02:49 at the Olympic trials held at Sheffield at the end of March and this now catapults him to the top of the world rankings. 

Daniel has been swimming since he was five years old and spends 20 hours in the pool and 5 hours in the gymnasium every week.  He very much has his sights set on the London 2012 Olympics but is also academically gifted.  He is due to sit A Level exams this summer in Maths, Physics and Russian and has been offered a place at the University of Manchester to study Russian and Business Management.

Daniel said: "My coach told me the great news, he'd been on line and worked out that my time at Sheffield meant I was now number one in the world at 100m breaststroke in the 18 years and under category.  It's a great feeling but I need to stay focussed if I am to reap the benefits of all this hard work.”

Daniel will be representing Great Britain in this summer’s European Juniors Championships in Serbia and in the World Youth Relay Championships in Mexico.  He recently picked up four gold medals for himself and the England team, helping them to victory in the WISE (Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England) Internationals and creating three new British records along the way in the 100m breaststroke (16-17 years: 1 minute, 3.33 seconds), in the open 200m breaststroke (2 minutes, 19.92 seconds) and in the 200m individual medley (2 minutes, 7.92 seconds).  Daniel also currently holds the British Junior 50m swim record with a time of 29.06 seconds.