There were a string of excellent performances as South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club held the first weekend of their Club Championships.
The event is a wonderful introduction to competitive swimming for the Spalding-based club’s newer and younger swimmers as they are able to race in a familiar environment.
For the club’s older swimmers the championships are an opportunity to update their times across a range of distances and strokes.
The senior swimmers are focused on their preparations for National Championships at the end of July and beginning of August – so are having to race unrested.
The first event was the ever-demanding 200m butterfly, with ten-year-old Francesco Monaco the youngest to take on the event. He stormed to a new personal best (PB) time to take the win in the boys’ 10/11 years age group.
The hard-working Mollie Briggs also clocked a new PB time to take the win in the girls’ 16 years and over age group.
Alex Sadler also produced an excellent swim to lower his PB time by almost five seconds en-route to victory in the boys’ 14/15 years age group.
Alfie Bisby and Thomas Bruce also produced eye catching swims as Bisby lowered his PB time by ten seconds and Bruce made an eight-second improvement on his entry time.
The 100m backstroke was the second event of the evening and saw a host of new PB times being achieved by the club’s younger swimmers.
In the girls’ 10/11 years age group there were new bests achieved by Sophie Bolton, who lowered her PB by six seconds.
Orlaigh Greer also made a six-second improvement on her best time and Jess Worth dropped a whopping nine seconds off her best time to finish under the two-minute mark for the first time.
Also impressing was Jess Herriott, who swam to a new PB in the girls’ 14/15 years age group and was delighted to achieve her first county championships qualifying time.
In the boys’ event there were great swims from both Alfie Robinson and, once again, Bruce as they each took a second off their PB times to take first and second places in the boys’ 16 years and over age group respectively.
The 50m breaststroke was a popular event too and Casey Hilliam showed great promise as she won the girls’ 8/9 years age group.
It was the first time Hilliam had taken part in competition and is still only a member of Junior Dolphins, the club’s teaching programme.
There were a number of other swimmers undertaking the 50m breaststroke for the first time, while Iris Lucas set a standard of 56.37secs.
Emily Taylor was close behind in her first ever 50m breaststroke and another member of the Dolphins, Ruby Dewhirst, registered her first time too.
Zofia Nowak had the standout swim in this event as she won her heat by a big margin, stopping the clock in a very impressive 44.72secs.
In the boys’ 50m breaststroke, Morgan Griffin clocked a huge 12-second PB in the 12/13 years age group.
Archie Robinson also had a strong swim as he won his heat with a new PB.
The final event on day one was the gruelling 400m Individual Medley (IM), in which there were some very impressive results.
Louise Herriott swam the event for the first time and ended up taking second place in the girls’ 10/11 years age group with a new PB.
There was a tremendous battle between Kitty Lamb and Lucy Wilson in their heat of the 400m IM, too.
Lamb led through the backstroke and breaststroke sections of the race, but Wilson crept into the lead in the freestyle section and just managed to hold on to touch the wall first.
Another greatly fought contest was between Oliver Sorrell and Alfie Robinson, as they fought for the win in their heat and to break the five-minute barrier for the first time.
Sorrell led through the butterfly section and Robinson gradually closed the gap and took the lead in the backstroke and breaststroke sections.
Both boys fought hard in the freestyle to finish the race and touched home in big new PB times.
Indeed, Robinson finished in 4.53.31mins, a 20-second new best time and Sorrell in 4.56.91mins, knocking 23 seconds off his standard.
On day two of the Championships, the impressive Sigourney Bolton stormed to a new 24-second PB in the 200m backstroke.
Lilli Bowman took the win in the girls’ 14/15 years age group with a new best time, while Daisy Rummery took first place in the girls’ 16 years and over age group with a PB of her own.
Matteo Monaco set a new best time in the boys’ 12/13 years age group by over four seconds.
Sorrell and Sadler battled hard in the boys’ 14/15 years age group with the result coming down to just 0.01 second.
It was Sorrell who touched home just ahead of his team-mate.
Alfie Robinson set the fastest time of the evening as he swam to an excellent 2.12.64mins to take the win in the boys’ 16 years and over age group.
There were then a host of new PB times in the 100m breaststroke. In the girls’ 10/11 years age group there were new bests for Aliyah Mohamed, Lucas and Jess Worth, while Daniela Bringeman took first place in the girls’ 14/15 years group with another excellent swim.
In addition, Andre Ubaviciute is back competing after a two-year break from the sport and producing her best ever performances. Here, she set a new PB of 1.21.09mins.
Meanwhile, Matteo Monaco swam a superb 100m breaststroke to touch the wall in a big new PB time to win the boys’ 12/13 years age group.
Archie Robinson finished in third place in this age group with a massive swim where he lowered his best time by more than six seconds.
Bisby took first place in the boys’ 14/15 years age group as he lowered his personal best time by three seconds.
Hilliam was back in winning form on day two as she took first place in the girls’ 8/9 years age group of the 50m freestyle in a PB.
There was another host of new PB times in the girls’ 10/11 years age group 50m freestyle, as Mohamed stopped the clock in 40.38 secs and Greer set a new standard of 43.73secs.
There were also new PB times for Emily Taylor and Lucas who finished in 44.68secs and 45.92secs respectively.
Herriott finished in a new best time of 47.35 secs and once again Worth set another PB time of 50.99secs.
Tom Vere took the win in the boys’ 8/9 years age group of the 50m freestyle with an excellent first time performance, while Bisby took first place in the boys’ 10/11 years age group with a new PB.
Rico Bringeman set the fastest time in this event and broke the 25-second barrier for the first time as he stopped the clock in a new standard of 24.93secs.
The Junior Dolphins swimmers then had the opportunity to race over the 25m backstroke.
Vere clocked the fastest time of the evening as he completed his event in an impressive 23.56secs.
There was a tremendous battle between Abigail Lowe and Emily Langley in the second heat of the 25m backstroke. Both girls fought down the length with the result coming down to the final stroke.
In the end, Lowe took the win in 31.15secs with Langley just behind in 31.67secs.
The final event of the weekend was the 400m freestyle. There were some excellent first time swims in this event, with Lamb posting a time of 5.35.09mins to take first place in the girls’ 10/11 years age group and Bisby setting a new standard in his first ever 400m freestyle.
Lillie Hamilton took the win in the girls’ 14/15 years age group as she broke the five minute barrier for the first time, while Emma Croker took first place in the girls’ 16 years and over age group with a five-second PB.
In the boys’ 12/13 years age group there were first times recorded in the event by Reuben Owen.
Isaac Bowman and Charlie Ward had a terrific battle in their heat of the 400m freestyle to touch the wall in 5.52.81mins and 5.52.95mins respectively.
Alex Sadler and Alfie Robinson also had a great race in this event, with Robinson finishing the stronger as both posted new PB times.
