Top boy Ashton goes nine for nine at Vulcans/Grantham swimming meet
08 Jul 2022
Ashton Hunter was named ‘top boy’ as Deepings Swimming Club came away from last Sunday’s Lincoln Vulcans/Grantham Swimming Club open meet with an impressive 61 medals.
The nine-year-old delivered a perfect record: nine swims, nine gold medals. And to top it all, he also broke two Deepings age group club records.
The meet, which took place at Grantham Meres Leisure Centre, saw the squad compete against swimmers from Grantham, Lincoln Vulcans, Loughborough and Louth with all the races crammed into a single day of competition. Deepings won a total of 23 gold, 14 silver and 24 bronze medals.
Ashton swept the board in the butterfly with victory in the 50m, 100m and 200m events. He added the 200m individual medley title and both 50m and 100m freestyle to underline both his versatility and complete dominance.
His best performances came in the backstroke. Again, Ashton won all three events, but in the 100m and 200m races, he smashed the Deepings club record with times of 1:29.39 and 3:07.28 respectively. The 200m was all the more impressive as it was the first time Ashton had raced the longer distance backstroke.
Nineteen swimmers achieved a podium finish as Deepings Swimming Club, which trains out of the Stamford Endowed Schools pools, put up a strong challenge for top club honours.
Eye-catching performances came from sister and brother Annabel and Oliver Shepherd who racked up seven golds between them.
Nine-year-old Annabel took a massive 24 seconds off her 200m freestyle to claim gold in 3:40.26, dropped 12 seconds from her 50m butterfly to win in a time of 52.02 and dipped under one minute for the first time in the 50m breaststroke to take her third gold in 58.58. She added further golds in the 100m backstroke and 100IM plus silver in the 100m freestyle.
Brother Oliver, meanwhile, won two races in the 12yrs age group, the 100m butterfly and 200IM, took silver in the 50m butterfly and a pair of bronzes in the 50m and 100m freestyle.
Five other swimmers won races, with four victories coming in butterfly events. Eleanor Twinley won the girls 11yrs 200m butterfly (and took silver in the 100m butterfly), Jacob Briers collected gold in the boys 14yrs butterfly (as well as silver in the 200IM and 200m breaststroke, and bronze in the 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke), Bailey Jackson-Chilvers won the 16/O 100m butterfly and 50m breaststroke (plus bronze in the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle), and Charlotte Jenkinson held off her rivals in the 11yrs age group for gold in the 100m butterfly.
Completing the gold-medal-winning performances was Oliver Clarke with excellent wins in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, the latter with a huge 24-second personal best to go under two minutes for the first time, in 1:59.60.
A host of other swimmers across all age groups collected silver and bronze medals after strong swims, many in new personal best times.
Olivia Laud won a brace of silvers in the 9yrs 50m butterfly and 100m backstroke, plus bronze in the 100IM.
In the 10yrs age group, Lucy Jenkinson won silver in the 100m butterfly and bronze in the 200IM, Olivia King took silver in the 100m butterfly, and Emma Affleck bagged four bronzes in the 50m and 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 200m breaststroke.
Eydee Chilvers won silver in the 11yrs 100m backstroke, while Isabella Reynolds claimed bronze in the 200m backstroke and 200m breaststroke.
In the 14yrs, Kendra Greenwood-Covell touched home second in the 100m and 200m butterfly, adding a third-place finish in the 200IM.
For the boys, 12-year-old James Cash won bronze in the 200m backstroke, while in the 13yrs age group, Lewis Tarver won silver in the 100m breaststroke and bronze in the 200m backstroke and 50m freestyle, Jack Cradock took silver in the 50m butterfly and bronze in the 100m butterfly, and Jack Bell picked up bronze in the 200IM and 50m backstroke.
Lynn Chapman, Deepings Swimming Club head coach, said: “What a day of swimming! As we near the end of the season, it was wonderful to see how much the swimmers have improved over the past few months. What was particularly impressive was the fact we had swimmers winning medals across all strokes and distances, and some of them were achieving best times right until the end of the day showing excellent levels of fitness.”
Also competing, and swimming multiple best times, were: Thomas and William Burdock, Hannah Cradock, Isaac Donaldson, Lottie Flatters, Mieke McDonald, Noah Skinner, Lucy Taylor, Clea Treharne and Isobel Vause.