PEEBLES’ Lauren Jocelyn has been selected to coach the Paralympics GB swimmers in Tokyo next month.

Better known as Lauren Greenshields in the town, she enjoyed a successful swimming career setting GB junior records and Scottish senior records in 200m breaststroke.

She also represented Great Britain at European championships in 2005 and 2007, before moving to Dunedin with Kiwi ‘Tig’ Jocelyn, who spent two years playing rugby for Peebles.

Lauren continued to swim competitively in New Zealand and holds masters’ records at 200m individual medley, as well as 50m and 200m breaststroke in the women’s aged 25-29 grade.

In 2012, the couple came back to Peebles to get married at the Barony Castle in Eddleston before returning to New Zealand, where son Archie was born the following year.

In 2014, the family returned to Scotland and Lauren coached the Borders Elite Swim Team (BEST) Performance Squad before being appointed the new National Performance Centre assistant coach working – with the British Para-Swimming.

During the pandemic she took up a post as head of swimming at a private school.

The 36-year-old who currently lives in Bollington, Cheshire, told the Peeblesshire News: “I’m pretty excited, it’s an amazing opportunity.

“I wasn’t sure whether I’d be selected as I am no longer working with the National Performance Centre, but I was blown away when I found out. It’s really nice to still be able to get jobs in sport.

“It’s fantastic to be part of each individual athlete’s journey, to help them reach their goals and to enable them to develop as people as well as athletes.

“I am really honoured to be going to Tokyo and hopefully we can bring back some medals. We have a mixture of experience such as Ellie Simmonds who will be going to her fourth Olympics, but we also have a few making their debut.

“We are leaving on August 10 and returning on September 5 and at the moment the restrictions mean that there will be no spectators there, but I think there may be a review after the Olympics to assess whether fans can attend.

"It’s a shame but the team’s full of professional athletes so they will get on with it.”

Lauren’s dad Tommy and mum Fiona still live in Peebles, as does her brother Ross and his family.

The Paralympics has 14 classes.

Classes 1 to 10 are for physical impairment.

Classes 11 to 13 cover visual impairment and class 14 is for intellectual impairment.

In addition to Lauren, Peebles Amateur Swimming Club has produced excellent swimmers throughout its history, representing the town at district, national and international levels.

They include Margaret Smith in the 1930s; Jamie Murray in the 1970s; Carol Shiell in the 1980s and Lynne Duncan in the 2000s.