Medals and county records galore for Deepings Swimming Club at Summer Nationals
08 Aug 2017
Deepings Swimming Club’s national squad won six medals, made 13 finals and swam four Lincolnshire county records at the British Summer Championships and England National Summer Championships, capping a highly successful season for the team.The seven swimmers competed in 16 events at the two championships, which took place on consecutive weeks at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield from July 25 to August 6.
Sixteen-year-old Isabel Spinley led the way at the British Summer Championships winning silver in the 100m butterfly final and bronze in the 200m butterfly final. In both events, she swam new club and Lincolnshire county records.
Isabel also made the final of the 50m butterfly, finishing just outside the medals in fifth, after swimming yet another new club and county record in the heats.
Deepings’ front crawl superstar Alex Wray, now swimming for Loughborough University, won bronze in the 50m freestyle before anchoring the 4x100 relay team to gold. He also made the 100m freestyle final, finishing eighth with a new personal best.
Tom Adams and Bailie Harrison also put in outstanding performances at the British Champs. Tom made the final of the 100m butterfly, finishing eighth in a new club and county record of 59.71 seconds – the first time the record for 15-year-olds has dipped below one minute. In the 50m butterfly, Tom was just outside his personal best, finishing 18th in his age group.
Bailie also narrowly missed her personal best in the 50m butterfly, but swam strongly to finish a creditable 16thin her age group.
The trio also competed at the England National Summer Meet, where they were joined by Louis Metselaar, Ben Beedell and Chloe Jones.
The team enjoyed another exceptional competition. Louis Metselaar, swimming in his first national meet, broke the club record to win bronze in the 100m breaststroke. In the 50m breaststroke, Louis finished sixth with another club record.
Tom Adams followed up his British Championships performance with bronze in the 200m butterfly after smashing the club record. Ben Beedell also competed in the 200m butterfly but narrowly missed the final in his first national swim.
Isabel finished just outside the medals in the 400m individual medley, in fourth with a new pb, while Bailie Harrison was eighth in the final of the 100m butterfly, just outside her best time.
Chloe Jones competed in the England Nationals for the first time and produced an excellent performance in the 800m freestyle, finishing eighth.
Lynn Chapman, Deepings SC head coach, said: "This has been our best-ever summer nationals. Our swimmers prepared well and each one performed at an exceptional level over the two week. I am immensely proud of all of them. They deserve their summer break and then the hard work starts again in September as we look to get them to the winter nationals.”