Lancashire Champions 2020

An amazing team performance from all of our swimmers at the 2020 Lancashire County Championships meant that Wigan BEST became the top swimming club in Lancashire. The Championships are held over 3 gruelling weekends of tough competition where BEST swimmers competed with believe and determination producing a brilliant number of personal best times right through all our ability groups, which gave us an incredible 1134 points 153 points ahead of their nearest rivals.

In all the team came away with 112 medals made up of 37 gold, 42 silver and 33 bronze across all the age groups, which shows the depth of talent within the borough.

11-year-old Evie Cutter proved her star qualities for the future with an outstanding performance coming away with 11 medals 8 of which were gold. Evie powered away to victory in the 10/11 years 50, 100 and butterfly, 50, 100 freestyle, 100 Back 200 IM, 200 breaststroke

Competing in the 16 years Rachel Hornby continued her fantastic performances achieving 7 medals, taking 5 gold medals in her age group winning the 200m fly, freestyle, breaststroke, and both the 200 and 400 IM. Further medals came in the 16-year girls event with Jessica Smith taking 2 gold in the girls 50 and 100 freestyle and silver in the 200 event.

In the boys 14 age group Charlie Collins produced his best performances to date taking 9 medals winning the 50, 100, 200, backstroke, 50, 100 Butterfly. Teammate Sam Grimes continued the success in the 14-year-old boys event winning 7 medals taking gold in the 800 freestyle and 200 butterfly. In the girls age group 15-year-old Maddie Baliey showed her strengths in the breaststroke events taking gold in the 100 and 200 event and bronze in the 50. Also, in the 15-years age group Olivia Sheehan came away from the championships with 5 silver medals producing excellent swims in the 400 800 1500 Freestyle and 100, 200 butterfly.

The club’s younger swimmers raised their game with Wigan BEST 12-year-old girls dominating the age group Hannah Lee winning the 200 backstroke and butterfly events taking silver in the in the 100 back, and a further 3 bronze to complete her counties. Isabel Liptrot added another gold from the 12-year girls age group winning the 50 backstroke and a bronze in the 50 Free. Isabel Lloyd and Skyla Baybutt added further medals to the club’s tally in the 12 years. For the 11-year-old boys Matthew Sawers took an excellent gold in the boys 50 freestyle and added 2 bronze and silver medals to his collection. In the 12-year boys Josh Hayes had a superb 200 backstroke taking gold and a further bronze in the 50 backstroke. Alice Holt competing in the 11 years 200 breaststroke took her first county bronze medal

13 years age group saw Leila Morris power her way to victory in the  girls 200 backstroke and bronze in the 100 event, in the same age group Lydia Swindells had her best Counties to date taking 6 medals with Eleanor Cross coming away with another gold for BEST in the 400 medley and silver in the 1500 freestyle and 200 Fly. Chloe Ridge taking the bronze to Eleanor in the 400 medley and added a further bronze in the 200 breaststroke. A further gold was to come to Wigan BEST in the 13-year girls when Ella Wadsworth came home strong in the 200 breaststroke. For the boys Sam Quinn gave his all in the men’s distance events taking silver in the 800 event and bronze in the 1500 freestyle.

Not to be outdone the senior side of the club made sure they came home with medals with Ben Smith taking gold in the 17 and over 800 freestyle and added a further silver and bronze in the 400 free and 1500 events. Declan added another senior gold taking the men’s 100 backstroke.  Jennifer Green proved her talents coming away with 6 medals gold in the 200 breaststroke, silver in the 200 and 400 medley, further silvers in the 100 breaststroke and 200 butterfly.

The 14-year girls saw Aimee Crompton-Hesford come away with 4 medals gold in the 50-backstroke silver in the 200 backstroke with bronze in the 100 backstroke and 50 fly. In the same age group Francesca Brady snatched a superb bronze  in the 100m butterfly with Eve Horton taking the bronze in the 200m event.

15 years proved to be another strong event with Liam Carey taking 7 medals   gold in the 200 backstroke and a further medal came with 3 silver and 3 bronze. Joel Pollard added another medal for the clubs 15-year-old boys with a silver in the 50 breaststroke.

This was a fantastic team performance and shows the strength and depth of competitive swimming within the Wigan area. We have a strong partnership with all our local swimming clubs who work hard identifying and developing the elite swimmers in the early stages following on from the Inspiring healthy lifestyles excellent teaching programme.

As a squad we have developed an a superb professional coaching team  at every ability level, a team that is dedicated in seeing every swimmer within the programme develop and reach their potential, and we are now seeing the rewards as we aim now to take the Borough to the next level.