The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
It was another impressive weekend for South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club as they picked up 32 medals at the City of Leicester Age Group Meet.
Some 28 of the Spalding club’s swimmers competed across all events on the programme, collecting 13 gold, 11 silver and eight bronze medals – as well as setting numerous personal best (PB) times and achieving regional qualifying times.
On day one Luke Sorrell got the team off to a flying start by taking gold in the boys’ ten years age group 400m IM. A strong swim from Sorrell saw him set a new PB time of 7.04.95mins.
He also added two bronze medals to his tally for the first day with an eight-second PB in the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1.46.87mins and was just outside his PB in the 50m fly, stopping the clock in 48.57secs.
Not to be outdone, brother Oliver Sorrell managed to set a new PB in the 200m butterfly with a time of 2.58.44mins to win the gold in the boys 11/12 years group.
Luke Blanchard collected medals in the boys’ 15 years and over 400m IM, taking silver with a time of 4.56.87mins. He followed this performance up with a bronze medal in the same age group for the 200m butterfly (2.21.00mins).
Meanwhile, Aurinija Maliauskaite claimed the first gold medal for the South Lincs girls by sprinting to victory in the 100m freestyle.
Competing in the girls’ 15 years and over group, she clinched her medal with a time of 1.01.11mins.
Isobel Gosling also continued her winning streak over the 200m butterfly, an event she is showing extremely promising potential in, by sweeping to gold in the girls’ 11/12 years age group with a time of 2.43.61mins.
Mollie Briggs was also in fine form in the butterfly events. She stormed to silver in the girls’ 13/14 years age group in the 200m butterfly with a new PB time of 2.36.34mins – and then took gold over the 50m butterfly, exactly matching her PB time of 31.90secs.
Frank Lamb also had an excellent day of racing, collecting four medals from his four swims. He picked up three gold medals in the 50m backstroke (38.64secs), the 100m breaststroke (1.39.23mins) – both in new PB times – and the 100m freestyle (1.18.20mins).
Lamb added a silver medal in the 50m butterfly with another PB clocked of 39.90secs.
Day two of the meet saw Ellisha Cookson get the team off to a strong start by posting the second fastest time in the girls’ 400m IM. She took the silver medal in a time of 5.17.15mins.
Cookson went on to pick up a further three medals, claiming silver in the girls’ 15 years and over 100m backstroke with a new PB time of 1.10.82mins, along with bronze medals for the 50m breaststroke and the 50m freestyle in 36.00secs and 29.06secs respectively.
Oliver Sorrell then added two further medals to his collection from the weekend.
He picked up the silver medal in the boys’ 11/12 years age group 100m butterfly with a new PB time of 1.19.73mins.
Oliver added a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle with a time, just fractionally outside of his best, of 32.00secs.
There were medals for his younger brother Luke Sorrell, too. In the boys’ ten years age group, Luke took bronze in the 50m breaststroke with a new PB time of 50.54 secs and added a second bronze in the 100m backstroke (1.31.69mins).
Lamb then repeated his success from day one by adding another four medals from four swims on day two.
He collected three gold medals in the 200m freestyle (2.46.95mins), the 200m breaststroke (3.32.56mins) and also a spectacular swim in the 50m breaststroke – lowering his PB by three seconds to stop the clock in a time of 44.92secs. This will see Lamb move into the top ten in Great Britain for this event.
Just for good measure, Lamb collected a silver medal in the 50m freestyle with a time of 34.94secs.
Gosling then collected two gold medals over the course of the day. Her first came in the 100m butterfly, where she swam strongly to touch the wall marginally outside of her best in a time of 1.16.17mins.
In the girls’ 11/12 years age group 200m freestyle, Gosling also swept to the gold medal in a very strong performance, posting a new PB time of 2.24.51mins.
Maliauskaite took a hat-trick of silver medals in the girls’ 15 years and over age group. Her medals came in the 100m butterfly (1.09.73mins), the 50m freestyle (28.51secs) and – impressively – in the 200m freestyle. With a well-paced race and looking strong throughout, she powered to a new PB time of 2.12.74mins.
Aidan Evans, swimming in the boys’ ten years age group, saved his best performance for last by producing a new PB in the 100m backstroke.
He stopped the clock in a time of 1.30.52mins to take the silver medal, despite losing his goggles in the race.
