Hollie Wilson and Khourosh Khodakhah follow in Leah Schlosshan's international footsteps for City of Leeds Swimming Club

As well as Leah Schlosshan, the European Junior 200m individual medley champion who will defend her title in Belgrade in July, the squad based at John Charles Aquatics Centre has four more rising stars to be proud of.

Khourosh Khodakhah is a 16-year-old of Iranian descent who will represent Great Britain at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Maribor next month in the 400m individual medley.

He will be joined in Slovenia from July 23-29 by 14-year-old Hollie Wilson of Harrogate, who has qualified for the freestyle events.

Leeds also has Daniel Ransom and Gabriel Shephard representing England schools at the World School Games out in Rio.

For City of Leeds head coach Richard Denigan it is a source of great pride for the club and reflects well on the work they have been doing.

“Hollie has been with us since the age of nine. She has a strong work ethic, not afraid to work hard,” he says.

“Khourosh is a young lad who has come through the system, he’s a very, very polite, diligent young man, very intelligent. I’ve said to his mum and dad if my two boys grow up like your boy I’d be an extremely proud father.

“He works hard, highly coachable. His attention to detail, evaluation of his own performance and how he has tried to adapt what he’s being told – is mature beyond his years.” Their success in qualifying for the European Youth Olympic Festival via strong performances at the British Swimming Championships in Sheffield in April, can be used as a motivating factor for the squad’s younger swimmers.

“When we do school talent ID for example, or new swimmers from the Learn to Swim programme, we always use these examples, and we’ve got many of them now, of what you could be doing in six years time, in eight years time,” said Denigan.

“Swimming is a lot of time at task, and the reward for the time at task is few and far between. The fact we have five competing for Great Britain in one season and in most seasons it’s a really good showcase for the young swimmers and a motivation for what they can achieve.”

Schlosshan remains the club’s standard bearer. The Bradford Grammar School pupil enjoyed a breakthrough summer last year by winning the European Junior 200m IM title in Romania.

Trying to defend that and then step up a level at the European Under-23s Championships later in the summer in Dublin, is the challenge this season for an 18-year-old currently sitting her exams.

“It’ll be good to see how she performs with two big meets this summer,” said Denigan, who will join her out in Belgrade as part of the British coaching set-up.

“The thing is with Leah, she has plan A, B and C in her mind and if they go out the window she quickly adapts to what she needs to do.

“Some people might need sessions off, she’s confident in what she can do and is good at time-management. If I ask her to do something she’s very coachable.”