The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Members of South Lincs Competitive Swimming Club took the opportunity to participate in the second series of Level X Racing held by Swim England – and picked up an amazing 12 medals.
The Spalding-based club’s swimmers were able to race all distances and strokes in their home pool – and then have their results submitted to a national leaderboard.
The South Lincs swimmers participated in events from June through to August, completing every distance from the 50m events up to the 1,500m freestyle.
With the results now finalised, it turns out that the swimmers acquitted themselves admirably.
Ellisha Cookson led the way, topping the national leaderboard in two events in the girls’ 17 years age group.
She claimed gold in the 50m breaststroke in a time of 33.85secs, that was just off her personal best (PB).
Cookson completed her double by finishing top in the 100m IM. Again, she was marginally outside of her best, but produced a fantastic swim of 1.07.10mins to claim her gold medal.
Rounding off a fine showing, she also grabbed a bronze in the 1,500m freestyle in a new PB of 18.02.03mins.
Meanwhile, Oscar Goldsmith led the way for the boys as he also became a double gold medallist.
He produced a host of new PB times across a range of strokes and distances, however it was his long distance freestyle swims that saw him top the podium.
Goldsmith grabbed his first gold in the 800m freestyle with a storming swim of 9.30.73mins.
This was the first time he’d broken the ten-minute mark and was good enough to top the boys’ 13 years age group.
The following day, Goldsmith took on the 1,500m freestyle and was just as determined, stopping the clock with another big PB of 18.15.62mins.
Team-mate Francesco Monaco showed it wasn’t just the senior swimmers of the club who could perform at this level and claim medals in a national competition.
Competing in the boys’ 9 years age group, he produced multiple PBs in the events he contested and topped the leader board to claim gold in the 200m freestyle (3.04.42mins).
There was also a silver medal for Monaco in the shorter 100m freestyle as he clocked a PB time of 1.26.40mins.
Making it a hat-trick of medals and one of each colour, he also struck bronze in the 200m breaststroke (4.04.25mins).
Kitty Lamb, who was a medallist in the first series of Level X Racing, managed to gain a further medal in the second series.
This time she swam to a bronze in the demanding girls’ ten years age group 800m freestyle.
She touched the wall in a time of 12.49.35mins to win her medal in fine style.
Emma Croker was also a medallist in the first series of Level X Racing and was able to add a further hat-trick of medals here.
She secured a silver medal in the 100m freestyle with a very strong time of 57.95secs, which was just outside of her PB.
In the shorter 50m distance, Croker swam another solid time of 26.82secs seconds to take third place and clinch national bronze.
She also took a surprise third as she took a bronze medal in the 1,500m freestyle.
Never one of Croker’s target events in the girls’ 16 years age group, she produced an excellent PB swim of 18.05.63mins.
South Lincs head coach Keith Haynes said: “I am delighted with the results we have achieved in the second series of Level X Racing.
“Not only have our senior swimmers produced outstanding results, but our juniors have shown themselves to be just as competitive on a national level.
“We are a small club and to collect 12 medals in a national competition shows how competitive we are as a club and that we can take on swimmers from much larger programmes.
“It is never easy for senior swimmers to get themselves up to race in their familiar home environment and without the adrenalin rush of other competitors to challenge them, but the South Lincs swimmers have done an exceptional job.”
