A team of youngsters from South Lincs Competitive Club were in action at the first two days of the East Midlands Regional Championships – and it was another successful all-round.
The weekend saw the Spalding-based club’s 11, 12 and 13 year olds take to the blocks across the strokes and distances, joined by the girls undertaking the 1,500m freestyle and the boys in the 800m freestyle.
For many of the swimmers it was their first opportunity to compete at regional championships, as beacuse to COVID-19, the event has not taken place since 2019.
However the swimmers rose to the occasion and acquitted themselves in fine form as they dealt with heats and multiple finals on their way to personal best (PB) times and medals aplenty.
Aaron Sadler got the action underway as he took on his preferred butterfly events. He swam in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly heats and qualified through to the finals of all three distances in the boys’ 11/12 years age group.
In the 100m butterfly Sadler set a new PB in the heats of 1.24.90 and then went on to improve this in the final to take seventh place.
In the 50m butterfly Aaron set an excellent heat time of 35.33secs and l was just shy of this mark and took a fifth place finish.
In the 200m butterfly he set new PBs in both the heats and the final as he secured a bronze medal.
Team-mate Charlie Bisby (11) had a busy weekend at the bottom of a double age group and the competition was very much about gaining further long course experience.
His strongest performances came in the 50m and 100m freestyle where he set new personal best times.
Frank Lamb started his campaign with a strong 100m butterfly swim heat in the boys’ 13 years age group, before clinching sixth place in the final.
He also had a strong fourth place in the 400m individual medley (IM) and was also a finalist in the 200m IM – where he swam to a fifth.
Lamb’s finest swim came at the end of the weekend in the 200m butterfly, as he posted a new PB of 2.43.33mins in the heats. Amazingly, he then took four more seconds out of that in the final to clock 2.39.98mins for bronze.
Kitty Lamb was also in action, with the 11-year-old gaining valuable experience in a double age group.
However, she still managed to reach finals – including setting a great new PB in the heats of the 100m backstroke, teeing up a seventh place in the final.
She also swam an excellent 50m backstroke qualifying through to her second final, where she once again placed seventh.
Lamb then made it a hat-trick of strong results in the longer 200m backstroke, where she lowered her personal best time by more than four seconds.
There was also a two and half second improvement for her in the 100m breaststroke event.
Lucy Wilson was also competing in the girls’ 11/12 years age group and finished with a very demanding programme as she kept qualifying through to finals.
She posted a new PBin the heats of the 200m IM to qualify through to the final, where she took seventh.
Wilson also qualified through to the finals of the 200m breaststroke, where she grabbed eight.
However, her best moment came in the 200m butterfly as she set a new PB time in the heats again bronze medal.
Elsewhere, Sigourney Bolton produced a host of outstanding performances.
She struck new PB times in the 100m freestyle and the 50m butterfly, while in her preferred breaststroke events there were finals to contend with too.
Bolton sped to a fast time in the heats of the 50m breaststroke, then improved on this in the final for fifth place.
In the 200m breaststroke she repeated the trick, setting new PBs in both the heats and final to get the bronze medal in the girls’ 13 years age group.
In the boy’s 11/12 years group, Kieran Ng had a busy programme with heats and finals of his events in the boys 11/12 years age group.
He set numerous PB times throughout the weekend , with his strongest performance coming in the 100m breaststroke with a PB in the heats and a bronze medal in the final.
Matteo Monaco also produced some fine performances.
His best moment came in the 800m freestyle, where he powered his way to a new PB and took the gold medal in his age group.
He als enjoyed a fourth placein the final of the 100m backstroke and was seventh in the 200m breaststroke.
There were more medals in the 800m freestyle for the South Lincs swimmers.
In the boys’ 14 years age group Oscar Goldsmith also took the gold medal.
In a determined swim, he was just a second shy of his PB time that was set a week earlier in Leeds.
Alfie Bisby set a new PB in the boys’ 15 years age group and took the silver medal in his age group. He was followed home by both Alex Sadler and Oliver Sorrell, as they in turn set new PBs respectively for fifth and sixth place.
Hannah Bruce (girls’ 13 years) was able to qualify through to a number of finals, finishing eighth in the 200m IM and sixth in the 200m freestyle finals.
Aidan Evans was just a tenth of a second outside of his PB in the 50m backstroke, before clocking a new best in the 200m butterfly for ninth place in the final in the boys’ 13 years age group.
Finally, Emily Briggs set PB times in both the 50m and 200m butterfly.
