The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
The second weekend of the Lincolnshire County Championships saw more impressive swims from the members of South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club.
They Spalding-based club’s swimmers were in action at Grantham on Sunday and collected a further 15 medals – three gold, eight silver and four bronze – to add to their growing tally.
Once again, Ellisha Cookson was in fine form – producing a new personal best (PB) time in the heats of the 100m breaststroke to qualify fastest to the final of the girls’ 15 years age group.
She lowered her heat time by over a second to claim her first gold medal of the day in a time of 1.15.52mins.
There was a second gold medal for Cookson in the girls’ 200m Individual Medley (IM), where she lowered her best time by almost two seconds (2.28.01mins).
Also competing in the girls’ 15 years age group, Aurinija Maliauskaite took silver medals in both the 100m breaststroke and the 200m IM behind team mate Cookson, making it a South Lincs sweep at the top of the podium.
Maliauskaite also went on to qualify fastest to the girls’ 50m freestyle final in her age group and produced a fantastic swim to dip below 28 seconds for the first time to claim gold in 27.93secs.
There was further success for the South Lincs swimmers in the 50m freestyle sprint event.
Emma Croker, in the girls’ 14 years age group, produced a stunning new PB time of 27.38secs to qualify fastest to her age group final.
Croker’s heat time ranks her seventh fastest in Great Britain for this event. In her final, she was a fraction slower than her heat time and finished 27.46secs to take the silver medal.
Daisy Rummery also achieved a podium finish, albeit a little outside her best time. She took the bronze medal in the girls’ 15 years age group in a time of 29.20secs.
The pair also took home medals from the girls’ 200m backstroke.
Croker swam to a silver medal and a new PB time in the girls’ 14 years age group with a time of 2.30.15mins.
Again, in the girls’ 15 years age group, Rummery collected the silver medal in a time of 2.32.43mins, with team-mate Dusty Saines just behind her for the bronze medal in a new PB time of 2.33.97mins.
Meanwhile, there were medals for the South Lincs boys in the 200m backstroke with Edward Skells taking bronze in the boys’ 15 years age group with a two-second PB of 2.30.59mins amd Atticus Strickland collecting the silver medal in the boys’ 16 years and over age group – also in a new PB of 2.21.19mins.
Other successes for the boys included Nitesh Anbazhagan, who claimed a silver medal in the boys’ 13 years age group for the 100m breaststroke.
A strong swim saw him well clear of the rest of the field, but unable to make up the gap to first place as he finished in a time of 1.21.46mins.
Frank Lamb also produced an exceptional swim in the boys’ 10/11 years age group 200m IM.
Lamb, who is swimming at the bottom of a double age group lowered his PB time by a staggering 14 seconds to touch the wall in 3.03.98mins and claimed the bronze medal.
Isobel Gosling, who had an exceptional first weekend of the championships, continued to produce medal winning performances, this time in the girls’ 12 years age group 200m IM.
Showing her speed over the butterfly and breaststroke disciplines, she swam to an 11-second PB to stop the clock in a time of 2.46.89mins and take the silver medal.
