Kingston Upon Hull Swimming club had a large number of entries at the recent Yorkshire long course County championships held in Leeds over the last couple of weekends. The club had 19 swimmers who managed to make a staggering 55 finals between them with 34 of the final place finishes been a top 3 placing.

16 year old Matty Sleight led the way for the boys, Matty was the Yorkshire champion in the 200m frontcrawl winning in a time of 1.57.19 and also took gold in the 400m frontcrawl. He also managed a silver medal in the 100m butterfly and 400m im event.

12 year old Bailey Hairsine continued his impressive run of form by qualifying for no less than eight finals from the eleven events he entered. Podium positions for the 1500m Freestyle and 400m IM were richly deserved; walking away with two bronze medals. The pinnacle of Bailey’s gala came in a thrilling 200m Butterfly when he missed out on becoming Yorkshire Champion by 1/100th of a second. However, silver capped off an exceptional meet.

11 year old Darcy Hambly gained qualifying times for a commendable nine races over the two weekends and she managed four top ten finishes. She gained two 5th place pendants; in the 800m Freestyle she swam 10:58.22 and the 400m Freestyle 5:17.42. Rounding off her success with 9th place finishes in the 200m Freestyle and 400m IM.

Bailey and Darcy were not alone in their success as other Age Group 1 swimmers were in fine form. 10 year old Aleah Ross competed in five races and managed four top ten finishes and a string of Yorkshire qualifying times for next year’s event already. A fourth place finish in the 400m Freestyle and sixth in the 400m IM whilst achieving a massive 20 second pb were the highlights. 11 year old Lewis Collins achieved a 7 second pb and NER qualifying time for his 200m backstroke and also competed in the 400m Freestyle. 10 year old Jake Conlon rounded off a successful gala gaining a 9th place finish in the 400m Freestyle in a time of 6:13.47.

Age group 2 swimmers Lily Hawkard and Ruby Willingham also qualified and travelled with the older squad. 9 year old Lily stepped up to the challenge for her first swim in a 50m pool by achieving 9th place in both the 200m Butterfly and 200m IM in which she managed an impressive 6 second pb. Likewise, 9 year old Ruby Willingham was not at all phased by her first Yorkshire Championships, gaining 7th and a finalist pendant for the 200m Backstroke.

Shannon McGahey 12 is showing fantastic improvement, Shannon made a total of six Yorkshire finals she took silver in the gruelling 200m butterfly and also the 800m freestyle but took the gold medal in the 400m freestyle in a time of 4.55.72. Four of her swims managed to bag her four North East qualifying times.

National performance swimmers Leah Altoft age 16 and Dervla Curran both had very busy galas. Leah made 8 finals and collected four silver medals in the 200im, 400im, 100 back and 200 backstroke and three bronze medal and also a fourth place finish. Leah also managed to qualify for the National Championships in no less than five events. Dervla age 14 had seven swims making the final in all the events, she was crowned Yorkshire champion in the 400m frontcrawl (4.33.23) and was also number 1 in the 100 freestyle where she managed to qualify for the National championships later in the year.

It was a fantastic couple of weekends for the Bailey family 13 year old Emily made four finals all of them been NER qualifying times, her best finish been in the 100m backstroke where she took silver in a time of 1.12.12. But it was 10 year old Sam who stole the show in the Bailey house, he made four finals with the highlight been the gold medal he won in the 200m freestyle recording a time of2.40.74.

Senior swimmer James Rodmell who has been swimming for 15 years competitively managed his first ever major final, with a seventh place finish in the 200m freestyle event.

14 year old William Maddell made two finals in the 200 and 100m butterfly which were both North East Counties qualifying time swims.

14 Year old Natalie Moon swimming in the S14 category achieved gold medal swims in the 100 and 200m breaststroke and silvers in the 200m frontcrawl and 100m backstroke events.

Other swimmer to have top 10 finishes included Alex Cook, Amy Beadle, Cameron Hulme, Amy Felgate and Oche Igoche.