Chris, 24, signs for Dolphins

From the archive, first published Wednesday 6th Sep 2006.

Swindon Dolphin received an early season boost at the start of a new campaign with Commonwealth swimmer Chris Jones putting pen to paper in the latest transfer coup for the Milton Road-based club.

In March this year, Jones represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne , Australia having previously reached two national finals to attain the qualifying standard to make the national team.

He qualified for the final of the 50 metres breaststroke, finishing 10th, a proud achievement at his first Games, but the pinnacle came with bronze medal as a team member of the men’s 4 x 100 metres medley relay team.

Jones returned to England all set for a promising career in accountancy having accepted a post with one of the big four accountancy practices.

However, Scottish head coach, Chris Martin saw a bright future ahead for the former University of Southampton swimmer.

So Jones was faced with the agonising decision of accepting a new career in accountancy or pursuing his dreams of reaching the GB team.

Initially, Jones combined accountancy with swimming, which saw the 24-year-old train at nine clubs in just four months as his career took him across the south of England .

Despite the obvious difficulties, Jones found that he was able to match the times set in his previous two national finals and he realised that if he was to concentrate fully on his swimming career then his meteoric rise was almost certain to continue.

Jones was faced with three possible options, including two centres of excellence at renowned performance clubs, or staying closer to home under the watchful eye of Dolphin chief coach Andi Manley.

The Scottish Head Coach was impressed with the training programme at Swindon Dolphin and confirmed that Jones could reach his full potential based at Milton Road .