The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club got their season off to a strong start at the Lincolnshire County Championships.
The Spalding-based club collected 29 medals in total at the Grantham event, comprised of ten gold, 11 silver and eight bronze – while the weekend also saw five of the club’s swimmers become county champions.
One of the stars was Ellisha Cookson, who collected four gold medals and county crowns over the weekend.
She swam a stunning 400m Individual Medley (IM) to finish in a ten-second personal best (PB) time of 5.07.33mins to take her first gold medal.
Cookson backed that up with wins in the girls 15 years age group in the 200m breaststroke (2.46.81mins), 200m freestyle (2.11.16mins) – in which she led a South Lincs clean sweep of the medals – and the 100m IM (1.08.49mins).
Isobel Gosling, swimming in the girls’ 12 years age group and at her first county championships, swept to gold medals in new personal best times in the 400m freestyle (4.58.73mins), 200m breaststroke (3.06.80mins) and the 100m butterfly (1.15.05mins).
In addition to this, Gosling also collected silver medals in the 200m freestyle (2.25.12mins) and the 100m IM (1.18.27mins).
Also shining was Aurinija Maliauskaite, who took the county championship title and gold medal in the girls’ 15 years age group 100m butterfly. She set a new PB in the heats with a time of 1.08.27mins and then further reduced her time in the final to 1.06.40mins.
Maliauskaite also collected a further three silver medals in the 400m IM (5.15.58mins), the 200m freestyle (2.13.27mins) and the 100m IM (1.09.97mins) – all in new PB times.
Not to be outdone, Emma Croker took the county championship title in the girls’ 14 years age group 200m freestyle in a time of 2.09.53mins.
She not only won her age group, but landed the junior championship title and collected silver in the senior championship.
Croker also collected a silver medal in the 400m freestyle with a new PB time of 4.40.95mins and a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly, again in a new PB of 1.06.78mins.
Another golden girl was Mollie Briggs, who grabbed gold and the county championship title in the girls’ 14 years age group 400m freestyle (4.37.75mins).
She also collected a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle with a new PB time of 2.14.94mins.
Meanwhile, Oliver Sorrell has had a strong weekend of performances and posted new PB times across a range of events. He collected a bronze medal in the boys’ 12 years age group 400m freestyle (5.06.86mins) and a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke (3.20.42mins).
Sorrell also set new PB times in the finals of the 100m IM and the 100m butterfly.
Luke Blanchard, competing in the Men’s Open, took the silver medal in the 400m freestyle in another PB time of 4.18.15mins – and promptly backed this up with a bronze medal in the 400m IM in a time, just outside his best, of 4.54.88mins.
Blanchard then collected a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle with a new PB time of 2.03.71mins.
Another among the medals was Esther Skells, who bagged the bronze medal in the girls’ 15 years age group 400m freestyle.
She clocked a new PB time of 4.45.39mins to win her first county championship medal, while also setting a new PB time in the heats of the 100m butterfly in qualifying for the final in her age group.
Elsewhere, Daisy Rummery produced strong swims in her preferred freestyle and backstroke events. She collected silver medals in the 400m freestyle and the 50m backstroke in times of 4.39.57mins (a new PB) and 33.55mins respectively.
She also collected the bronze medal in the girls’ 15 years age group 200m freestyle with a time of 2.14.99mins.
There was a surprise for Beatrice Finch too, as she collected her first county championship medal in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 3.06.95mins.
Finch prefers the freestyle and backstroke events, but produced a terrific swim in the longer breaststroke to make it a podium finish.
There was also a silver medal for Nitesh Anbazhagan in the boys’ 13 years 200m breaststroke.
Despite being slightly outside his best time, Nitesh posted a strong 2.57.82mins to claim his first medal of the championships.
