An exciting new era for Huntingdon Piranhas has started impressively.

Matt Newton has been appointed as the local club’s new head coach as part of a link-up with the big City of Peterborough Swimming Club (COPS).

Newton, who is also a qualified rowing coach, started his role in September and is enjoying the challenge of nurturing top talent in the Huntingdon area.

He said: “I see so much potential at the club and I’m really looking forward to developing our team to compete at county, regional and national levels.

“The club has a heritage of developing great swimmers in the past and I’m really excited to be able to try to build on that success.”

Para-triathlon star Lauren Steadman is the most famous product of Piranhas while two other former members are now starring at national level for COPS.

Henry Pearce and Mia Leech both picked up gold medals at the recent Swim England National Championships and Leech is also part of the national development programme.

The current crop of Piranhas swimmers impressed at the recent Diss Open Sprint Meet as they collected a stack of medals.

Csanad Rehus was the star performer in Norfolk as he claimed gold medals in the 200m individual medley, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly in the 9yrs age bracket. Rehus also won silver in his 50m freestyle outing.

Jamie Coggins was another Huntingdon talent to strike gold when triumphing in the 100m breaststroke at 15/16yrs level. Coggins also added a 50m breaststroke silver to his collection.

Adam Wiacek, Kian Lee and Michael Drinkwater also earned medals with several of the other 16 Piranhas swimmers in action producing personal-best efforts.