4 squads where representing Kingston upon hull swimming club at the weekend at the Rotherham Metro long course gala at the prestigious Ponds forge, with swimmer from 9 years old to 21 competing. This was the last chance for swimmers to secure their place in the Yorkshire Championships to be held in February and March.

Age 1 Squad

The girls from age 1 were in fine form managing to scoop over 10 medals between them. 10 year old Darcey Hambly had a great weekend smashing her personal best times in four of her races, and been rewarded with speeding tickets in three of her races by swimming over the cut off times. Most notably were her 200m free that Darcey swam in a time of 2.41.29. Darcey then went on to claim 2 gold medals, the first for 100m Breast and to finish off a great weekend for her she got the gold in the 100m back. 10 year old Jack Woodcock had a great weekend managing to get one of each medal He won the gold in 200m breast, silver in 200m free and bronze in the 200m back to top off a good weekend he managed personal bests in all his races.

11-year-old Leoni Bull had a superb weekend managing personal bests in all 6 of her races, her best efforts coming in the backstroke events. In the 50m back she swam her way to her first 11 year old Yorkshire time and after a long weekend managed a PB in her final race of the day leaving the coaches with nothing but praise for her efforts, an extremely hard thing to do! 11 year old Abigail Malton shone on the Sunday she claimed the gold medal in the 100 free in a time of 1.19.16 this lead to a boost in her confidence and she went on to swim her way to personal best in her last 2 races of the weekend the 200 free and 100 back where she was a clear winner in her heat. 11-year-old Benjamin Chapman a PB in the 100m free to claim the silver medal also having a good finish in the 200m free.

12 year old Hannah Willingham was a star performer after sustaining an injury to her head last week, she was only given the go ahead to swim on Friday. Hannah managed personal bests in all 6 of her races. Her best performance coming in the 50m breast where she swam her way to a Yorkshire qualifying time. Hannah claimed the bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke and topped her great gala with Gold in the 50m free. 12 year old William Thomson only swam on the Saturday but managed to claim a speeding ticket in the 200m free in a time of 2.22.51, he then went on to swim his way to a gold, silver and bronze in the 100m free, 200m breast and his bronze in 100m back. 12-year-old Chloe Hamilton only swam Sunday But managed personal best in all four of her races getting the gold medal in 200m breast and the silver in 200m free. 12-year-old Charlotte Oliver managed to claim the bronze in the 200m backstroke. Josh Hawkard, Ruairidh Cleland and Jack riley all put in some great swims.

13-year-old Aram Sharpe having recently been ill with flu was out to prove he was back and did this in style, beating his own goal of swimming 50m free in under 30seconds He did this in 29.99 and was rewarded with a silver medal for his efforts. He then went on to swim his way to a 4 second personal best in 200m free. 13-year-old Joe Morris had a big medal haul managing to claim a gold and 4 bronze medals. Lauren Hall had a great weekend taking a number of medals and putting in really good swims in all her races.

Age 2 Squad

11 members or the age group 2 squad attended the gala at Ponds Forge and for most of them this was their very first experience of a 50m pool but once again the squad produced some fantastic swims coming home with 25 personal best swims and 7 Medals (3 Bronze 1 Silver and 3 Gold’s) with Matthew Longhorn achieving 4 of the medals.

Matthew took gold in the 50m frontcrawl in a time of 37.75 and also in the 50-backstroke event. He backed it up with a bronze in the 200m frontcrawl and silver in the 200m backstroke.

Samuel Bailey also was in the medals with impressive swims he collected gold in the 200m backstroke in a time of 3.20.77 and a bronze in the 50m backstroke.

Other swimmers in the medals were Aleah Ross who was third in the 50m frontcrawl in a personal best time, and Lewis Collins who won a bronze in his age group in a time of 3.24.72.

Other swimmers to impress where Emma Newmarch who swum four personal best times for four swims, Melissa Machin 3 from 3 and Madeleine Tate also 3 personal best swim for 3 starts. Other improvement came from Hollie Verity and Laura Bailes. Luke Taylor managed to qualify for the Yorkshire Championship later this month in the 50m-frontcrawl event.

Regional Squad

Eight swimmers from the Regional Squad attended the meet, with a total of 28 swims and 13 personal bests between them. Representing the boys; Ben Annis (13) had a good swim in the 200m free, with a small improvement in his submitted time, and took 3 and a half seconds off his 100m free personal best. Tom Longhorn (15) also improved in the freestyle, taking half a second off his 50m time. Dale Booth (16) took time off in both the 100m butterfly and 50m backstroke and James Rodmell (20) brought home a gold medal for the 100m breaststroke and had a small personal best in the 50m free which was a North East qualifying time.

The preferred events for the girls seemed to be on the Sunday. Emma Beadle (13) had five strong swims with times around the personal best mark. Emma came home one hundredth of a second faster than team mate and training partner Zoe Webster (also 13) in the 200m breast, however Zoe now has a long course time for this event which is faster than her short course time! Zoe gained three personal best times, improving in the 200m breast, 100m free and 100m back. Eleanor Johnstone (16) also had five swims, and showed improvements in the 100m back and 100m free. Not to be out done on the personal best front, Jess Kelsey (14) knocked time off in both her swims, i.e. The 100m free and 100m back.