One of SwimPaths stars of the future and sponsored athlete Alysia Maestri (Bristol Henleaze and United Bristol Swimming Club) has sailed into 2016 much the same way that she finished 2015. After gaining a bronze medal at the summer championships last year and qualifying for her first senior short course nationals prior to Xmas, she has swam her way to 5 age group golds and to become treble junior champion at the recent County Championships held in Gloucester.

We caught up with Alysia in Gloucester to ask her about her current form, how she enjoys racing (particularly against some of the Counties big guns) and her plans and dreams for the rest of 2016 and beyond...

In the Christmas holidays, I went to Sheffield to swim in the winter nationals, although I didn't get a PB it was still a very good experience seeing GB swimmers swim and it felt great to be a part of such a high standard competition. Recently at the Gloucester Counties I swam in 5 races 50m, back, breast, free, fly and 100m IM. In my age group I came first in all of them! I also managed to get to the Championship finals (fastest 8 swimmers across all age groups) in 50m back  which I came 3rd; 50m freestyle (6th) and 50m Breast (5th), also getting junior champion in all of those three. Racing in the finals was such a thrilling experience racing against people like Annie brown (Swimpath's own pro swimmer and assistant coach), who also did very well (winning the 50 freestyle in a new County Record). I am looking forward to next weekend of Counties and then getting stuck in fully to the long course season and consolidating my place as a top 10 ranked swimmer by qualifying for the British Nationals this summer...

A great job done by Alysia and we can't wait to see what the rest of the season will bring!

Alysia is also one of our selected swimmers for phase 2 of the sponsorship package so look out for plenty more posts from her and her teammates as we chart their progress through this exciting Olympic season!