A further 47 medals over the final weekend of the Lancashire Counties giving the club a massive 146 over the three tough weekend of competition saw Wigan BEST crowned top age group club for the second time in consecutive Championships with this year seeing us as runners up in the Senior Championship’s missing the top spot by just 2 points.
All in all a fantastic performance by all the swimmers finishing the event with 47 gold, 55 silver and 44 bronze medals.
Our 10 & 11 years were again on fine form with Poppy Johnson taking top spot in both Freestyle events finishing in an excellent 2:43 in the 200 event and 33.5 in the sprint event. Team-mates continued the gold rush with 11 year-old Gracie Smith showing her dominance in the 200 Fly with Ellen Jones adding the 4th gold for the age group by taking the top spot in the 50 breaststroke in 41.6.
Jorja Howard and James Vaughan finished the competition by collecting a further three medals between them our 12 years age group with Jorja taking Silver both in the 200 Freestyle and 100 Backstroke with James finishing his tough campaign with a bronze in the 50 breaststroke, giving both swimmers an excellent 13 medals between them for the Championships.
Success continued into the 13 year-old’s with 3 more golds added to the total. In the 100m Backstroke Evie Cutter took her first of 2 golds this weekend finishing in 1:11 then went on to win the 50 Freestyle with an excellent 29.2. Evie added a further 3 medals to her collection taking silver in the 200 Fly and bronze in the 50 Breaststroke, 200 Freestyle. Matthew had his most successful weekend of the 3 with a great gold in the 800 Freestyle winning in 9:49. Matthew backed this up with silver in the 200 Fly and bronze in the 200 Free. 3 more medals were added by Alfie Owen with a 1:11 in the 100m Back giving him silver With a 29.6 giving him a bronze in the 50 Freestyle and 37.2 securing his second bronze in the 50 Breaststroke. A brave 1500 Freestyle gave Lauren Watson her first medal of the Championships finishing 20:10 and the bronze medal.
An excellent 1:07 in the 100 Back gave gold medal to Izzie Liptrot, a further 2 medals were added to the 14 years tally by Lucy Vaughan and Josh Hayes. Lucy came home strong to take bronze in the 200 Fly with Josh adding another bronze to total in the 100 Backstroke.
Four swimmers were in the medals for our 15 year-old’s with Lydia Swindell taking another gold in the 100 Backstroke finishing in 1:07. Lydia went on to take silver and bronze in the girls 50 and 100 Freestyle respectfully. For the boys Daniel Haynes showed his strength in the 15 year boys 50 Freestyle when he controlled the event from start to finish winning in 26.4. Daniel’s second medal came in the 200 event when he took bronze. A further two bronze came to the 15 age group when Leila Morris to 3rd spot in the girls 100 back and Jack Pritchard matched her bronze in the boy’s 800 Freestyle.
A very impressive 13 medals were added by our 16 year-old’s and even more impressive 5 of them were gold. With 3 of the gold being won by Sam Grimes giving him an impressive 10 medals in total for the Championships 8 of which were gold. Weekend 3 Sam added the 3 more gold to his collection taking the 800 & 200 Freestyle and the 200 Fly. Anna Healey showed her speed in the 50 Breaststroke taking the championship title in 34.2. Team-mate Aimee Crompton-Hesford continued Wigan BEST of the backstroke events with an excellent gold in the 16 years 100 backstroke. with the silver in the event going to Anna. An excellent 28.3 gave Anna a silver in the 50 Freestyle. A big drop in her personal best dropping to 2:25 gave Eve Horton silver in her 200 fly. Charlie Collins fought hard to take silver with Daniel Jones taking the 3rd spot giving us 1, 2, 3 in the 200 Freestyle.
Our senior’s were pushing hard to collect point’s knowing that a good weekend could get them close to the top club trophy and matching the age grouper’s. Saturday and Olivia Sheehan had an excellent swim coming home in silver in the ladies 1500 Freestyle. The 200 Fly gave Olivia an opportunity to go one place better finishing in 2:21 in the 200 Fly with Rachel Hornby taking second spot. The 200 Free and rolls were reversed with Rachel taking top spot and Olivia second. Mat Tinkler took silver in the men’s 100 Backstroke finishing in 1:01.
This was a fantastic team effort and everyone should be very proud of their achievements take time to reflect and analyse your performance and then quickly turn your attention to the summer national qualifying window which will be upon us within the next 5 weeks which will include the Regional Championships within its time frame.
A big thank you to our helper’s over the weekend Mel, Jen, Ian, Paul, Jo, Wayne and James without whom the Coaches Dave and Chris could not have done their jobs to such a high standard. Well done Wigan BEST 2022 Lancashire County Age Group Champions and Senior runners up.
Age Group Club Points
- Wigan BEST 1315
- City of Salford 733
- Bolton Metro 489
Senior Club Championship Points
- City of Salford 105
- Wigan BEST 103
- Bolton Metro 32