PIONEER 79 Swimming Club sent a squad of 40 swimmers to the the Lancashire County Swimming Championships held in Liverpool and Manchester over two weekends.

The swimmers had each achieved qualification times in their entered events during the course of the previous 12 months. The number of qualifying swimmers was an increase of five on the previous year, 2014, when we had 35 qualifiers, which in itself is a good indication on the Club’s continued improvements over the last 12 months. In their Age Group Categories, 11 swimmers won medals - Elodie Smallwood had a very impressive meet, swimming in the 14 year age group, she won two gold and three bronze - the pick was winning gold in the 400m IM, pipping Southport swimmer, Maisie Johnson by just 0.05 seconds.

Eleanor Collin also had a good competition, winning a bronze medal in the 15 years 200m Backstroke. Ben Havers-Strong and Ben Makin both competed in the marathon of all swimming events – the 1500m freestyle, with each of them taking a medal in their respective age groups.

Havers-Strong won the bronze medal in the 12 year age group, achieving a RQT and new personal best time in the process while Makin took an impressive gold medal in the 13 year age group winning his age group title just over 1 minute faster than his nearest rival in 19.30.08!

Niamh Robinson was competing in the 16+ girls age group, and won gold medals in the 50m/200m Breaststroke and the 200m Individual Medley events - along with silver medals in the 400m Individual Medley, 100m Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly. She also went on to successfully win medals in the Junior Championship (16 & Under) – seven golds, one silver and two bronze, along with three golds, four silvers and two medals in the Senior Championship (16 & Over).

Tom Gilroy won Bronze medal in his age group (16+ boys) and the Senior Championship (16& Over with a pb of 1.00.05. He then when gold in his age group and Senior Championship in the 50m Backstroke.

Harry Robinson, competing in the 10/11 years age category, won2 silver medals (50m Butterfly and Freestyle) and two bronze medals (50m/100m Backstroke). Mikaela Shackleton (12 years) won bronze in the 800m Freestyle and Martha Smith (14 years) also had a great swim in the 50m Butterfly, finishing =3rd with a Swim Trafford swimmer. Ewan McKavett (15 years) won a bronze medal in his age group in the 100m Butterfly, setting himself a new pb.

Ben Turland, competing in the 14 year age group had a sensational competition, winning three bronze medals. The medal colours do not do justice with his results, having never swam sub 60 seconds in the 100m freestyle, Ben smashed through the barrier in his heat and again in the final, earning him one of his three medals, knocking over two seconds off his previous pb in the process.

Throughout the two weekends, all swimmers were attempting to achieve Regional Qualifying Times (RQT) which would enable them to compete at the NW Regional Championships to be held in May/June this year. Over the course of the Championships, Pioneer 79 swimmers achieved no fewer than 117 of these times between them!

The second weekend was exceptionally tough going with a number of swimmers spending up to 23 hours on poolside over the 2 days of competition. However, this most definitely did not reflect on their performances, the swimmers achieved many new personal best times between them and kept up their spirits and determination until the bitter end, cheering on their team-mates in the finals.

In the Age Group Top Club points, Pioneer 79 Swimming Club finished 7th out of the 37 clubs who scored points. However, in the Junior/Senior Championships Top Club points table, Pioneer 79 finished in 5th place, just four points behind Preston with only City of Manchester, Swim Trafford and City of Salford further up the table! During the course of the two weekends, Pioneer 79 swimmers appeared in no fewer than 70 finals and achieved 94 top six finishes.