Plymouth Leander has an extremely impressive group of talented of young swimmers, which includes world record holder Ruta Meilutyte and British record holder Ben Proud. Coach Jon Rudd‘s talent pool just got a little stronger as it was announced that 14 year old Laura Stephens will be joining his group at Plymouth College.
Stephens, who won three silver medals representing Great Britain at the European Youth Olympic Festival last year has accepted a scholarship to Plymouth College, “We have to give Laura a lot of credit because she’s already stepped out of her comfort zone to come away from home to move to Plymouth,” Rudd told the Clacton Gazette.
“She comes to us with good credentials and a very positive swimming history.
“I’d like to congratulate Colchester Swimming Club and their coaches for getting her to the level that she’s at.”
“Our job now is to try to extend that further and allow her to see what her potential is.”
At the European Youth Olympic Festival Stephens posted a time of 1:02.22 in the 100 butterfly and 2:17.24 in the 200 butterfly collecting silver medals in both individual events. She won her third silver of the competition as part of the women’s 4 x 100 medley relay team.
Rudd made it clear that he is very happy to have Stephens as part of his group and he is excited to coach her, but that he won’t be holding anyone’s hand through the process, “The primary goal at the moment is for Laura to swim as well as she can at the Commonwealth Games trials,” said Rudd.
“It’ll be a case of her trying to get back into the Great Britain team again this year, as they double up as European Junior Championship trials.”
“The other main target for her are the British Championships, in July.”
“The rest of this year will be about her getting used to the system and how to do things.”
“It’s important she learns how to be independent and she has to become self reliant as much as possible.”
“You don’t wipe their noses for them and it’s a case of making sure that we strike the right balance so that she’s independent but also has the right guidance.”
Plymouth Leander was also in the news earlier this week as they received four of The Herald (Plymouth) sports awards. Meilutyte won the Sports Personality of the Year, Proud won Amateur Sports Personality of the Year, Rudd took home Coach of the Year and Leander was named Team of the Year.
