Three South Lincs swimmers headed to Sheffield to compete at the British Swimming Championships – and one of them earned the right to compete for Great Britain at the European Junior Championships.
The British Championships is the major event in the domestic calendar, with many of the country’s top swimmers – such as Olympic gold medallists Adam Peaty, Duncan Scott, James Guy and Anna Hopkins – all competing.
Representing the Spalding-based club were Ellisha Cookson, Emma Croker and Rico Bringeman, who relished had the opportunity to rub shoulders with the very best of British over the course of the week and demonstrate their abilities.
The Championships were also of considerable importance as they served as the selection meet for British senior and junior teams scheduled to attend the Commonwealth Games, World Championships, European Junior Championships and the European Youth Olympic Festival.
Indeed, Croker was selected to the British team to participate at the European Junior Swimming Championships. to be held in Bucharest, Romania from the July 4-11 this year.
All three swimmers acquitted themselves admirably over the course of the six days, with Cookson first into the action.
She got South Lincs off to a flying start as she stormed through her 50m breaststroke to set a new personal best (PB) time of 33.35secs.
Cookson surprised herself by qualifying through to one of the evening’s finals where she was able to improve on her heat time and post a new club record of 33.23secs.
She was back in action on day two of the championships in the 200m breaststroke, where she posted a further PB of 2.43.99mins.
Swimming with control in the opening one hundred metres, Cookson was able to attack the second half of the race and pull away from the field of swimmers to set her new best time.
She then headed home for a few days of training before returning to action on day six of the competition, where she lined up in the heats of the 100m breaststroke.
Having set PB times in the two other distances, it came as no surprise that Cookson set another new standard of 1.13.87mins – which was once again a new club record as she narrowly miss out on the final of this event.
Three PB times out of three swims at this level of competition was an excellent achievement and bodes well for her at this summer’s National Championships.
Croker, meanwhile, Croker contested four events over the course of the first four days of the meet.
She started her campaign in the 200m freestyle, where in the heats she was marginally outside of her PB as she qualified through to the evening’s finals.
Croker then found something special in her final and lowered her personal best time by 1.28secs to finish in a new mark of 2.03.93mins and take a stellar second place.
She also finished as the fourth placed junior (17 years and under) in the event.
Next, Croker went on to contend the heats of the 50m butterfly on day two of the championships and was narrowly shy of her PB.
On day three, she went in the 50m freestyle and again was just short of a new personal best as she finished in 26.81secs to secure another swim in the junior final of this event.
A determined final swim saw the South Lincs ace touch the wall in seventh place with a time of 26.90secs.
Croker then closed out her campaign on day four of the meet with the 100m freestyle.
She swam a solid heat swim of 58.03secs in the morning to qualify through to the junior final of this event in third place.
There, she was able to find something extra and set a new PB of 57.24secs as she powered her way through the second 50 metres to secure another super second.
Bringeman, meanwhile, was determined to match the achievements of his team mates and laid down an excellent heat swim in the 200m butterfly with a new PB of 2.07.32mins to qualify through to the junior final.
The aim is always to go faster in the final than in the heat and Bringeman duly found some extra speed in the second half of the race to touch home in a further PB time of 2.07.10mins.
His top time was not only a club record, but also a new Lincolnshire county record in the event.
Bringeman then turned his attention to his individual medley (IM) events.
In the longer 400m IM he fell short of his PB twith a swim of 4.44.36mins, which wasn’t quite enough to make the junior final of this event.
A day off and a training session saw him back on track for the 200m IM.
Fast out in the butterfly and a controlled backstroke section of the race gave Bringeman his best back end speed as he powered through the breaststroke and freestyle sections of the race to smash his PB by 2.54 seconds and stop the clock in a new mark of 2.10.55mins.
His time was also a new club record in this event.
Over the course of the week the three swimmers competed in ten events and made a further five finals, setting nine new personal best times.
The meet was a huge learning opportunity for all three swimmers, who had to manage themselves over a long period of time.
They also demonstrated a real capacity to step up from heat swims to finals and produce their very best.
Croker making the British squad for the first tine was the obvious highlight for the club.
Many of the country’s top swimmers started their international career by competing at European Juniors and all at South Lincs very much hope that she will follow in these footsteps as she progresses in her swimming.
