The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
An amazing 62 medals were won by the team of 40 South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club members at the annual Rob Welbourn Open Meet.
The Deepings-hosted event also saw swimmers from the Spalding-based club clinch a string of new personal best (PB) and county qualifying times over the weekend.
Alex Sadler led the way with seven gold medals and one silver medal from his eight races in the boys’ 11/12 years age group.
The talented fly swimmer showed his prowess in this stroke by claiming gold across 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly.
Sadler also claimed gold in both the 100m and 200m IM, the latter in a thrilling race against his South Lincs team mate Oliver Sorrell that went down to the touch at the wall.
He added gold medals in the 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke for good measure. Alfie Robinson was also competing in the boys’ 11/12 years age group and collected five medals over the course of the weekend.
Robinson took a hat-trick of gold medals in the 50m breaststroke, 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle, while adding a silver medal in the 200m freestyle to his tally and a bronze in the 100m freestyle.
Sorrell (11/12 years) bagged himself five medals during the meet, too. A PB swim en-route to glory in the 200m backstroke was the highlight, while he added silver medals to his collection in the 100m backstroke and the 100m and 200m IM, followed by a bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
Next up, Isobel Gosling showed her dominance in the 200m butterfly by finishing at the top of the podium.
She produced a strong weekend of swimming and took home a further five medals. There were silvers in the 50m butterfly and 200m backstroke and a hat-trick of bronzes in the 50m and 100m freestyle and the 200m IM.
Meanwhile, Aidan Evans had a remarkable weekend – winning a staggering ten medals at the meet.
He collected five silver and five bronze medals in the boys’ 9/10 years age group. The silvers came in the 50m and 100m butterfly, the 50m and 200m breaststroke and the 200m IM, with bronzes following in the 50m and 200m backstroke, the 50m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and the 100m IM.
Rising breaststroke star Sigourney Bolton (9/10 years) impressed too, getting her first county time (50m breaststroke), a silver medal (200m breaststroke) and a bronze (100m breaststroke).She added a bronze medal in the 50m backstroke.
One of the youngest at the event, nine-year-old Lucy Wilson set a host of PB times and grabbed a bronze in the 100m freestyle.
Aaron Sadler (9/10 years) showed all the promise of his older brother, collecting bronze in both the 50m and the 100m butterfly events.
Elsewhere, Esther Skells was a double medallist as she won a silver medal in the 200m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m butterfly.
Brother Ed Skells bagged two medals too, collecting silver in the 200m backstroke and 200m IM.
Nitesh Anbazhagan was in action on just one day of the meet, but that didn’t stop him from collecting five medals in the 13/14 years age group.
He won silver in the 100m freestyle, 200m IM and the 200m butterfly, plus bronzes in the 200m backstroke and 50m butterfly.
Beatrice Finch (13/14 years) swam only two events, but did so in style – setting PB times and collecting a brace of silver medals (200m backstroke and 200m IM).
Elsewhere, Charlotte Ciuberkyte showed her breaststroke talent with victory in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke events in big new PB times.
She added the silver medal in the 200m breaststroke, too.
Lucas Garlike bagged four bronze medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly and the 200m IM, while Erin Siggee landed silver in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the 50m breaststroke.
Rounding off the medal winners was Lucie Lund, who sealed silver in the 100m backstroke and bronze in the 200m backstroke.
South Lincs Head Coach, Keith Haynes said: “The meet was a really successful one for the club.
“It really was an opportunity for our younger swimmers to shine and shows a great depth of talent for the future of South Lincs.”
