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Outstanding Success for CoPA at the UK National Championships 2025

The last weekend in April delivered outstanding results for CoPA as they competed in the UK National championships and came away with medals in almost every event.  This top-level competition is the pinnacle of Artistic Swimming in the UK and is attended by the sport’s top athletes who compete to be crowned the best artistic swimmers in the UK.

The first medal was a bronze for Rhea who finished third in the Technical Solo category.  Natasha also finished a very credible 5th in this category.  Rhea’s solo prowess was cemented further with another 3rd place finish in the free solo event, earning her a bronze medal.  Natasha again finished in 5th place in this event too.

CoPA’s acrobatic team (Rhea Howard, Natasha Howard, Leah Meyer, Chloe Hawksworth, Jess Lockett, Olivia Higham and Nema Dawkins) delivered their brilliantly executed routine with an astonishing array of lifts and somersaults and stormed to a second place finish, collecting a silver medal for each of them.

The technical duet event saw CoPA sisters Rhea and Natasha Howard swim together in a beautiful and sharp routine which earned them a third place finish and a bronze medal.

The CoPA technical team event saw CoPA narrowly miss the medal table with a superb swim which earned them a 5th place finish.

Another team event – the free team routine – saw CoPA’s swimmers finish in a respectable 8th place.

On the second day of the event, Natasha and Leah finished a well deserved second place to collect a silver medal, and they were beaten to first place only by swimmers from the GB team swimming a GB duet routine.  Rhea and Chloe also competed in this event and finished in 9th place.

As if the medal haul was not enough for CoPA, our swimmer Natasha took the prestigious trophy for the most points scored by any swimmer in the whole event.

We are immensely proud of all our swimmers who have proved without doubt that CoPA is one of the top artistic swimming clubs in the UK.

20th Anniversary celebrations

This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the club opening.  We were lucky enough to have a visit from the Lancashire Evening Post to help us celebrate this event.

To see what they had to say about us on Facebook click here.

A follow up article was also shown on the Lancashire Evening Post’s website here.

Temporary Land Training Times

Please note the temporary land training times via Zoom during the Coronavirus pandemic as follows. These are subject to change at short notice as the situation develops.

  • Monday: 6.00-8.00pm Strength and Conditioning
  • Wednesday: 6.00-8.00pm Flex, Stretch and Core
  • Friday: 5.00-6.30pm Friday mix!
  • Saturday: 10.00-12.00pm Strength and Conditioning
  • Sunday: 10.00-12.00pm Flex, Stretch and Core

CoPACorona Lockdown

As we are all excited for our return to the pools, we thought it would be appropriate to share a reminder of how CoPA as a club have been keeping active and practising our skills during the lockdown. CoPA have ably substituted the weekly land and pool sessions for ‘virtual’ online training sessions, led by Fiona, every single week since lockdown began. There have been 104 Zoom sessions to date! Well done to our swimmers who have shown their mettle in these trying times and worked every bit as hard during lockdown as they did in the water! In fact, as a result of these sessions there have been some very noticeable improvements in skill and stamina amongst our swimmers which we hope can now be put to good use in routines as we return to the pool.

Huge thanks go to Fiona for her time and dedication in keeping the club running at full pace during these difficult times. Everyone at CoPA greatly appreciates her efforts.

Some of CoPA’s lockdown highlights and swimmers’ improvements can be seen below.


CoPA Hat Challenge!

Help CoPA During Covid!

During this challenging time when we can’t fundraise in person and events have been cancelled, City of Preston Aquatics Swimming Club needs your help more than ever. If you’re shopping online for anything at all, please remember to go via easyfundraising to raise free donations for us.

Easyfundraising has over 4,000 shops and sites which will donate to us at no extra cost to yourself, including lots of big name retailers like John Lewis, Argos, Uswitch, eBay, M&S, Just Eat, Now TV, Domino’s Pizza and Audible. All you have to do is go through the easyfundraising website or App whenever you shop online and we’ll receive a % of your spend as a free donation, at no cost to you or us.

We really need all the help we can get at the moment and any funds we raise will make a big difference to us. Please remember to use easyfundraising and if you haven’t signed up yet, you can find out more details on our easyfundraising page, or sign up directly at: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/prestonaquatics/?utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_content=c19-e2.

Video Land Training Schedule

During the Coronavirus restrictions, CoPA land training sessions by remote video conference (Zoom) will take place on the following schedule:

  • Monday 6pm – Strength and conditioning
  • Tuesday 4pm – Core, extension and flexibility
  • Wednesday 6pm – Strength and conditioning
  • Friday 4pm – Core, extension and flexibility
  • Saturday 4pm – Strength and conditioning
  • Sunday 10am – Core, extension and flexibility

Anyone wishing to take part who is not already registered, please submit your email addresses to Paul or Fiona.

NW Routine Grade Results

Congratulations to all the City of Preston Aquatics girls who participated in the first Swim England NW routine grade assessments on Saturday at Irlam.  Continuing CoPA’s impressive 100% success rate, all of the following swimmers passed their grades:

  • Grade 1 Bronze: 

    Katie Harris
    Maddie Jackson
    Jess Lockett

  • Grade 2 Bronze: 

    Abby Litvinski
    Immy Barnes
    Lola Pearce
    Rachel Airey
    Chloe Hawksworth
    Nema Dawkins
    Sofia Danisman

  • Grade 3 Bronze: 

    Elizabeth Brown
    Evie Coupe

  • Grade 3 Silver: 

    Natasha Howard