PIONEER 79 Swimming Club took a squad of 25 swimmers to the North West Winter Regional Swimming Championships held at Liverpool’s Wavertree Pool.

And the Accrington-based club once again produced the goods, clocking many impressive swims including an ASA Winter Short Course National Qualification Time by 15-year-old Elodie Smallwood in the 400m Individual Medley.

Her time of 5mins 04.16secs secured her second qualification time to go alongside the 200m butterfly, which will see her compete in both events in Sheffield next month.

The competition was split into two age groups, 16 & Under and 17 & Over, with separate entry times for each age group.

Pioneer had two 12-year-olds on the starting blocks and both Beth Hartwell and Ella Williams impressed.

Hartwell achieved a qualification time for the 50m freestyle with her swim of 31.09secs andnow she is even more determined to return next year aiming to achieve further qualification times.

Williams achieved a qualification time for the 50m backstroke, her time of 33.38secs was more than half a second faster than her previous personal best time, finishing 31st in a field of 60 swimmers.

Other outstanding swims included the nail-biting swim off between Pioneer’s 15-year-old Kara Pedley and Ulverston’s Nicola Capstick in the 16 & under 50m freestyle.

Having both achieved PBs in the heats (28.41secs), a swim off was required to decide who would be the second reserve for the final.

And Pedley achieved a phenomenal result under the pressure of the situation, touching first in a time of 27.68secs, knocking almost another second off the time she set in the heat.

Unfortunately, she was not required to swim in the final as her time was fast enough to take the bronze medal.

Others included Caitlin Armstrong in the 200m Butterfly, her time of 2mins 35.04secs knocked almost three seconds off her previous personal best timelt.

Ben Martin and Jack Hardman broke the two minute barrier for the first time in the 200m freestyle.

Martin’s time of 1min 58.79secs was almost a four second personal best while Hardman’s time of 1min 59.54secs was also a two second personal best time.

Ben Turland set himself a handful of new PBs, however, his time of 4mins 20.79secs in the 400m freestyle was over 16 seconds faster than he had ever previously swam this event.

Ellie Perris knocked three seconds off her PB in 200m IM, as she dipped under the 2min 30 barrier for the first time and Charlotte Dunn’s swim in the 200m breaststroke (2min 48.84secs) was a two second personal best. There were so many strong swims from our swimmers, it is impossible to list every one of them. Head Coach, Mike Wilson was very pleased with the results, however had the event been run as it should have been (including heats and finals for each event), perhaps there would have been even more outstanding results to mention. Under the conditions they were presented with, every swimmer gave 100% and they should be all extremely proud of their achievements.