CASA Swimmers Produce 22 Medal Haul at District Championships

The swimmers of Cleethorpes & Scunthorpe Aquatics (CASA) have produced the goods once again by winning a stunning 22 medals at the recent North East Region Age Group Swimming Championships.

The annual championships were held over two full weekends in June and top age group swimmers from the whole of the NE region, covering Humberside up to the Scottish border and across to the Pennines, were competing. Girls from 10 to 13 years and boys 10 to 14 years who had achieved the strict qualifying times were eligible to take part and a total of twenty seven CASA swimmers, comprising 13 boys and 14 girls had qualified. This made CASA one of the largest teams represented and the large group of swimmers made an impressive sight on poolside.

The CASA team performed fantastically well reaching 67 finals and going on to win 9 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronze medals. They also achieved 14 National Qualifying Times in the process.

The first event was the boys 1500m freestyle and CASA hit the medal trail straight away in the 12 year age group with Josh Jones winning silver with a National Qualifying Time of 18:38.33 and Callum Gladding winning bronze in a time of 19:00.11 and missing out on his NQT by less than 10 seconds.

This early success got the team fired up and inspired them to further 7 medal wins during the first weekend including a first District gold medal for James Burke who showed impressive form to win gold in the 11 years 100 backstroke. Other medal wins came from Sophie Long with silver in the 13 years 800m freestyle and Josh Jones with silver in the 12 years boys 400 individual medley. Star of the first weekend, however, was 11 year old Oliver Webster who won 3 golds and a silver in 200 fly, 400 IM, 200 freestyle and 100 breaststroke respectively.

Both weekends were planned to be held at the Ponds Forge International Swimming Centre in Sheffield but the second weekend had to be cancelled due to the swimming pool plant room flooding! Frantic reorganisation resulted in a delay of a week and the new venue of the John Charles Centre in Leeds. Due to a gala being held on both days the District Champs could not start until 3pm which resulted in some very late finishes for the swimmers. It also meant there wasn’t time for finals to be held so all events became heat declared winners.

Whilst this was not ideal it applied to all swimmers and the CASA team responded fantastically going on to win another 13 medals over the two days. As in the first weekend, the tone was set by the first event which was the boys 800m freestyle where the CASA trio of Oliver Webster, Callum Gladding and Josh Jones all achieved National Qualifying times with Oliver winning gold in the 11 years event and Callum winning silver and Josh just missing out on a medal in fourth place in the 12 years event.

Other notable medal wins in the second weekend came from James Burke winning his second gold of the Championships in the 11 years 100m freestyle, Sophie Long winning gold in the 1500m freestyle and Oliver Webster continuing his impressive form by taking gold in the 400 freestyle and 200 breaststroke.

As an added bonus it was discovered after the event that the girls 4x200m freestyle relay team of Georgia Cragg, Zoe Lansley-Hogg, Sophie Long and Natalie Sharman had achieved a time which put them in the top 30 in the country which qualifies for entry in the National Championships. This is the first time in the history of the club that a relay team has reached the Nationals.

Chief Coach, Dan Higgon was delighted with the results and said “The District Championships represent the second highest level of competition available to age group swimmers and we have shown that we can compete at this level with confidence. To have so many swimmers qualify, reach finals and win medals at this level of competition is a brilliant achievement. Overall we had a fantastic Championships.”

CASA medal winners were:

James Burke (11yrs) Gold: 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke

Silver: 200m backstroke

Callum Gladding (12 yrs) Silver: 800m freestyle

Bronze:1500m freestyle

Joshua Jones (12 yrs) Silver: 1500m freestyle, 400m individual medley

Bronze:200m breaststroke

Maisie Legge (11 yrs) Silver: 1500m freestyle

Sophie Long (13 yrs) Gold: 1500m freestyle

Silver: 800m freestyle

Zoe Lansley-Hogg (13 yrs) Bronze:1500m freestyle

Oliver Webster (11 yrs) Gold: 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke, 400m individual medley

Silver: 100m breastroke, 100m butterfly, 200m individual medley

Bronze:100m freestyle