The Vortex - November 2025: Coaches Piper & Thompson Honoured By BSCA As Awards Week Gets Underway
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The British Swimming Coaches Association (BSCA) began to roll out its 20254 awards today BSCA Youth Coach of the Year 2025.
The first two honours go to coaches Keiron Piper (Millfield School) and Nick Thompson (Norwich Swan / Aquatics GB Manchester NPC).
Keiron Piper (Millfield School) is BSCA Youth Coach of the Year 2025. He mentored Filip Nowacki, one of the world's outstanding juniors this year, with British age records over 100m breaststroke inside the youth standards held by Adam Peaty, and a European Junior record in the 200m just 0.04sec shy of the British record held by Ross Murdoch since 2014.
Whilst representing Great Britain, Nowacki claimed gold in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke at the 2025 World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships, after achieving the same feat at the European Junior Championships - and claimed more golds at the Island Games than there are days run the week.
Piper will witness his charge make a Great Britain senior debut at the European s/c Championships in Lublin from December 2-7 (see team in full in Vortex below).
Nick Thompson (Norwich Swan / Aquatics GB Manchester NPC) is the BSCA Para Youth Coach of the Year 2025.
BSCA's executive director Brian McGuiness noted: "The award is in recognition of Nick’s work with William Ellard (S14 classification) who had a highly successful campaign at the Singapore 2025 World Para Swimming Championships. His achievements included:
• Gold medal and a new world record in the Men's S14 200m Freestyle.
• Gold medals in the Mixed S14 4x100m Freestyle and Medley relays.
• Individual gold in the Men's S14 100m Butterfly.
• Bronze medal in the Men's S14 100m Backstroke.
More winners will be announced throughout the week and all the coaches being honoured will be listed on the BSCA website:

Zhang Zhanshuo Sets WJR 3:42.82 In 400 Free Chinese National Games Get Underway in Shenzhen
The podiums and semis on day 1 at the Chinese National Games at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre Natatorium, where Zhang Zhanshuo set a World Junior record of 3:42.82 in the 400m freestyle.
Finals:
Men's 400 free final
Zhang Zhanshuo 3:42.82 WJR
Xu Haibo 3:47.73
Fei Liwei 3:47.91
Women's 400 free
Li Bingjie 4:01.17
Yang Peiqi 4:01.90
Liu Yaxin 4:03.20
Semis
Women's 200m IM
Yu Zidi 2:11.88
Yu Yiting 2:11.96
Chang Mohan 2:12.88
Men's 100 breast
Qin Haiyang 59.20
Yan Zibei 59.79
Dong Zhihao 1:00.13
Men's 50 'fly
Wang Changhao 23.39
Xu Fang 23.41
Zhang Qiye 23.58
Women's 100 'fly
Zhang Yufei 57.22
Wang Jingzhuo 58.20
Zhou Xinyang 58.24
4x100 free relays:
Notable Splits - women:
Yang Junxuan - 52.65
men:
Wang Haoyu 47.27
Liu Wudi 47.31
Pan Zhanle 47.93
Also in the Vortex:
- Filip Nowacki To Make Senior GB Debut Among 17 selected For Europe S/C Champs in Poland
- Vanotterdijk, Gaspard & Verreth Set Belgian S/C Records
- Summer McIntosh Joins Team Arena
- Komoróczy Breaks Hosszu’s Hungarian S/C 'Fly Dash Mark
- Carol ‘Penny’ Taylor Passes Away At 96
- Dávid Betlehem 1st To Break 14:30 s/c 1500 free this season
- U.S. Pro Swim Format Tweaked for 2026 Season
- Walshe, Wiffen & NíRiain Lift Athlete Of Year Honours At Swim Ireland Awards - & Sweeney Is Top Coach
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