Friday 01 December to 03 December, the Nordic Swimming Championships will be held in Tartu, Estonia. Several athletes who competed at the European Junior Championships this summer and last year are now set to take part in this weekend’s Nordic Championships.

The Nordic Championships is a collaboration between the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway) as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The squad that Norway sent to Estonia consisted of 5 senior men, 7 junior women, 7 junior men and 7 para athletes. You can see who’s in the squad here:

It was great to see a large squad consisting of experienced athletes and many new faces, representing Norway at international level for the first time. Most of the squad performed well at the National Championships two weeks ago, and it will be interesting to see if better results can be achieved this weekend.

It will be interesting to see how the squad performs as a team. I hope those participating for the first time will give their best, and with the support of the team, they can both have fun and perform well. It is difficult to say anything about the levels of other countries, and therefore we prefer to focus on ourselves.

The aim of these championships is for our juniors to gain more international experience, and for more to have the opportunity to swim both trials and finals, said junior national team coach Beda Leirvaag.

Full squads for all relays

We field a full squad for all relays, which is important to further develop the relay teams to a better international level.

We attach great importance to the development of the relay team to be able to elevate them to a better international level in the future. “The short track will be a training arena, while on the long track in the summer we hope to move up the rankings in the junior EC,” said junior national team coach Beda Leirvaag.

Good chance for good results in para class

We have 7 swimmers ready for the championships this weekend. Astri Lillebø Walsh (Ytre Søre Sunnmøre SK), Nelly Kristine Bjørnstad (Øvre Eiker SK) and Max Bernes (SK Speed) were the championship debutants. Max participated in the Special Olympics earlier this year, but this will be his first competition at this level. For Astri and Nelly, this was their first opportunity to experience a little at an international level.

The athletes have been through a busy period with National Championships, assembly and now Nordics in the space of three weeks, and this is a great way for them to get a taste of what it’s like if you want an international career. The goal is always for athletes to run the best race of their career at the championships. Most have made good progress over the fall and conditions are favorable for good swimming all weekend, said NextGen-Gruppa coach Morten Eklund.

Gabriel Steen (Trondhjems SLK) put in a good result at NM two weeks ago, where he set 3 new Norwegian records in his class. We therefore expect to see him fighting for the top spot at the Nordic Championships.

Top photo taken by Peter Aglen, aglenphoto.com

Below you will find useful links to follow the Nordic Championships.