The opening weekend of the Lincolnshire ASA County Championships was one to remember for South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club.
The Spalding-based club made the short trip to Grantham’s Meres Leisure Centre for their first competition of 2016 – and there were some stand-out showings from South Holland’s finest.
The racing kicked off in great style, with Mollie Briggs, Hannah Willis, Dusty Saines, Ellisha Cookson and Amelia Fovargue all setting new personal best (PB) times in the women’s 200m freestyle.
Then it was the boys’ turn with Luke Blanchard achieving a PB and securing his second midland qualifying time (MQT) in the 200m breaststroke.
South Lincs then had 22 representatives across the 100m and 50m events, with a massive 13 progressing to finals.
In the ladies’ 100m IM, both Ellisha Cookson and Hannah Willis took the bronze medals in their respective age groups, while Atticus Strickland took silver and Luke Elliott bagged bronze in the men’s 100m butterfly.
Elliott’s fly time was a big PB and improves his national rankings to 15th for this event.
Impressively, Cheryl Wilson and Hannah Willis both took the gold in the 50m backstroke events. Wilson also won the senior championship in her event.
In session two, Strickland, Colin O’Reilly and Blanchard all recorded new PBs in the men’s 200m freestyle, with Cookson and Georgia Roberts achieving PBs in the women’s 200m breast stroke.
The shorter events again produced a huge number of PBs, with Calvin Wilson and William Swain attaining MQTs in the 50m backstroke.
Seven swimmers progressed through to the finals, including Blanchard in the 100m IM, who improved on his heat time.
Briggs, Cookson and Cheryl Wilson all shone in the 100m butterfly, with Wilson improving again from her heats time.
Blanchard, Elliott and Calvin Wilson all progressed to the men’s 50m backstroke finals – with Elliott going on to take gold and the senior championship trophy.
Session three saw a smaller contingent of South Lincs swimmers contest the 400m freestyle and 400m IM events.
Some 11 swimmers contested 13 races, with six of those leading to new PBs and a further two season’s- best times for Elliott and Alice Gowing.
Girls Willis, Briggs, Cookson and Saines led the charge, all hitting PB times in the 400m freestyle.
Briggs and Willis won the gold and silver medals respectively in the 10/11 years age group. too.
All four girls showcased great skills throughout their races – doing exactly what their coach had asked for.
Meanwhile, Elliott contested the men’s 400m freestyle and recorded a super swim to win the championship trophy.
In the 400m IM events Gowing notched up a season best performance to secure her midland standard.
The boys were next, with Blanchard smashing his PB to secure yet another midland standard and taking silver in the 15 years age category.
Ryan Horrocks also broke his PB and made it under the five-minute mark to secure his midland standard.
There was still time for impressive Elliott to get back into the water, swimming a season-best time to take silver in the 17 and over age group.
South Lincs’ head coach Callum Lawson said: “This was another weekend where swimmers delivered their skills and got the rewards for all of their hours of hard work.”
- Ten-year old South Lincs swimmer Mollie Briggs competed at the City Of Derby Level One open meet at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
At this high level meet she swam superbly to win gold in the gruelling 200m butterfly event.
Brilliant Briggs also reached the finals of the girls’ 200m IM with a PB time and achieved a PB in the 100m freestyle.
