A number of Gulf schools took part in The World School Swim Championships last weekend, with some incredible performances on a global stage.
The prestigious event was hosted at the London Aquatics Centre in the UK and allowed Gulf students the chance to compete at an iconic Olympic venue.
As well as schools from the UAE who regularly compete in the WSG Event Series, the region was also represented for the very first time by Bahraini participants.
The British School of Bahrain – and their ‘Bulldogs’ swim team – made the trip from Hamala with a strong squad of 11 athletes who lit up the LAC across two days of action.
After a masterclass with a Team GB Olympic Swimmer Toby Robinson on Friday, the races got underway on Saturday with long course action taking centre stage.
Hundreds of medals were secured, including many by Gulf-based athletes, as students from across the globe battled it out in friendly competition.
Sunday saw the pool switched to short course, with many different 50m events preceding the highly-anticipated 4x50m Mixed Freestyle Relays. And the relays proved to be a success, with one gold, two silver, and two bronze medals secured by UAE schools.
Then it was time for the first ever WSG Nations Cup, allowing all participating nations to compete against each other in teams of four chosen from the fastest 100m Freestyle swimmers.
The Gulf was represented in the race by Team Bahrain (Liv Zuidwijk, Jean Tomballe, Elissa Fihani, William Balzano) and Team UAE (Elyas Htiouech, Enzo Lavigne, Skye Dickson, Gracie Brooke). Team UAE did very well to secure bronze against strong opposition from Northern Ireland and England.
The WSG Nations Cup rounded off a fantastic weekend of action and came shortly before the announcement of the event’s team champions.
As well as the countless individual medals won by Gulf students across the weekend, Repton Al Barsha, Dubai were crowned U11 Girls Team Champions and Safa Community School, Dubai found success in the U11 and U13 age categories where they emerged as Overall Team Champions.
Additionally, as reported by Gulf Youth Sport last week, a new UAE National Record was set on Sunday by Charlotte Fairbairn of Repton Al Barsha. Her time of 39.97 seconds broke the previous record for 10-year-olds’ 50m Breaststroke and signified the achievement of a goal she had been working towards for months.
Watch the full interview with Charlotte below…
WSG Swim 2025 photo galleries
Gulf Youth Sport are proud partners of The World School Games Event Series, and full photo galleries from WSG Swim involving Gulf schools are available to view by clicking here.
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A massive ‘well done’ to everyone who competed in The World School Swim Championships 2025 from Gulf Youth Sport!