Ten young guns from South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club came home with five bronze medals after a gruelling total of 36 swims (15 of them finals) at the East Midlands ASA Youth Championships.
Top talents Luke Elliott, Calvin Wilson, Gemma Baker, Luke Blanchard, Will Swain, Alice Gowing, Ryan Horrocks, Cheryl Wilson, Luke Elliott, Elisha Cookson and Serena Leadbeater were all in action at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre meet at Sheffield – and did the club proud.
The hero of day one was Elliott (16), who claimed two bronze medals.
The first came in the 400m IM, as he reached the final by setting a time of 4.52.80mins.
There, he roared to third place with a rapid 4.48.64mins.
His second bronze came in the 200m backstroke. Elliott qualified in 2.13.05mins, then clocked a finals time of 2.12.32mins for a fine third.
The talented teen was also in the 100m butterfly, recording 1.00.40mins to reach another final before marginally improving his time to 1.00.54mins.
Elsewhere, Calvin Wilson (17) competed in the 200m freestyle (2.04.48mins), 100m breaststroke (1.12.79mins) and 200m backstroke (2.18.86mins). He also progressed to the final of the 200m back, clocking an improved 2.18.27mins.
Cheryl Wilson was busy too. She competed in the 100m freestyle (1.04.11mins) and 100m backstroke (1.10.21mins). Again, she made the final of the 100m back, finishing in 1.10.89mins.
Two swims for Blanchard (15) yielded times of 1.22.95mins in the 100m breaststroke and 5.27.22mins in the 400m IM, while Horrocks (16) finished the 400m IM in 5.02.33mins and 100m butterfly in 1.03.27mins.
Horrocks reached the butterfly final, improving his time to 1.03.16mins.
Day two saw Gowing (16) in 400m IM action (5.49.23mins), Baker (17) finish the 400m IM in 5.38.23mins and Leadbeater (15) clock 1.27.81mins in the 100m breaststroke.
Swain (16) then roared to bronze in the 100m freestyle with a finals time of 55.48secs. He had earlier qualified with 55.70secs.
Calvin Wilson contested the 200m IM (2.21.17mins), 100m freestyle (56.71secs) and 100m backstroke (1.03.26mins). He secured a place in the 100m back final, but was a little slower there (1.04.30mins) after a busy day.
Meanwhile, Blanchard competed in the 200m IM (2.35.75mins), 200m butterfly (2.38.28mins) and 200m breaststroke (3.00.50mins).
Horrocks bowed out in the 100m backstroke (1.08.87mins) and 200m IM (2.25.91mins), but did reach the 200m butterfly final with a swim of 2.24.41mins.
He improved on that in his final, setting 2.23.38mins.
Rounding off day two, Elliott was unable to add to his medal tally despite reaching three finals. In the 400m freestyle he recorded 4.18.68mins (4.19.17mins in qualifier), before clocking 1.01.04 mins in the 100m backstroke final (1.01.46mins heat) and 2.16.09mins in the 200m butterfly final (2.14.99mins heat).
However, Swain and Elliott both won bronze medals on day three.
Eilliott’s third medal of the weekend came in the 50m backstroke. He reached the final in 28.50secs, then came third with 28.53secs.
Elliott also raced in the 50m butterfly (27.61secs).
Swain’s second bronze of the championships came in the 50m freestyle (25.40secs), having qualified in 25.90secs.
Cheryl Wilson finished day three with times of 31.20secs in the 50m butterfly and 29.29secs in the 50m freestyle. She also reached the 50m backstroke final in 32.80secs, where she improved to 32.18secs.
Also on day three, Cookson (11) joined the party to compete in the 800m freestyle long distance event. She clocked a very pleasing 10.43.20mins. Elliott was the only other South Lincs ace in long distance action as he finished the 1,500m freestyle in 17.04.73mins.
