LEAMINGTON Spa Amateur Swimming Club won an impressive 24 medals at the West Midlands Summer Championships held at the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry.
Some 33 swimmers, aged 12 to 19 years-old, represented the club against top teams from across the region having achieved difficult qualifying times.
And 18 Leamington swimmers qualified for finals as the club’s young stars claimed six gold, 10 silver and seven bronze medals as well as one further silver in the relay events.
LSASC’s swimmers also achieved over 100 new personal best (PB) times and set 13 new club records.
And Leamington’s 16-year-old swimmer Annabel Crees led the way with a dominant performance to sweep the board in the backstroke events as she won gold over 50m, 100m and 200m in her age group.
She was joined by 16-year-old Charlie Rounce who claimed 100m butterfly gold and 15-year-old Andre Onyekwe who won gold in the 50m backstroke in their respective age groups.
LSASC’s youngest regional champion Issey Cleary, aged 12, took gold in the 50m breaststroke.
Some races went down to the wire and were won and lost with fingertip finishes as Rounce was pipped to gold in the 200m butterfly by 0.03 seconds despite having swum a huge PB time.
The club fielded a number of teams in the relay events as the 14 to 16 years team of Onyekwe, Dan Wilks, Rounce and Ned Stevens won silver in the 4x100m medley race with the time quick enough to earn qualification for the British Summer Championships in July.
And the 4x100m freestyle relay team of Onyekwe, Rounce, Stevens and Axel Martin also qualified for the British Summer Championships with a fast swim in their event.
Head Coach, Graham Nash, said: “Well done to all our swimmers over the two long weekends of racing.
“I am particularly pleased with how well our younger swimmers raced, with special mention to 12-year-old Issey Cleary on winning her first regional gold.
“For our older swimmers, it was great to see their experience coming through, with many achieving qualifying times for the British and English Summer Championships, which take place in July.”
