Swimmers from Kingston upon Hull swimming club travelled to compete in the Harrogate licensed open meet the other week and had an outstanding performance right throughout all of the squads, with every swimmer either returning with a medal or a personal best swim.

Dual club swimmer Sophie Holdsworth (14) had an outstanding weekend, walking away with seven medals in total. She took gold in the 200m IM, 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle, silver in the 50m breaststroke, 100m freestyle, 50m and 100m backstroke races. If that wasn't good enough she achieved personal best times in all but one of her races. 11 year old Megan Batterbee wasn't far behind and managed two gold medals ; in the 400m freestyle she swam 5:59.07 gaining a 6 second pb and 36.67 for the 50m freestyle. Silver in the 200m backstroke was then followed by a Yorkshire qualifying time of 40.40 for the 50m backstroke.

Not to be outdone, the boys weren't far behind. 13 year old Elliott Stephenson gained a magnificent six medals, two of each colour! Gold for the 200m freestyle and 100m breaststroke, silver in the 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke and finally bronze in the 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle. Add to this five pb's out of six races and I am sure he went away very happy with himself and so he should. 11 year old Lewis Marsters also performed well, taking gold in the 50m backstroke and a bronze medal for his 100m butterfly which he swam in 1:32.79. Gaining pb's in all his other races meant it was a successful weekend all round.

11 year old Kennedy Akrill posted a massive 31 second pb and carried away a bronze medal for her 200m breaststroke swim in a time of 3:38.94, took silver in the 200m IM before taking an impressive 9 seconds off her pb in the 200m freestyle. 12 year old Emma Newmarch knocked 3 seconds off her pb to gain silver in the 200m breaststroke and backed this up with personal best time in three other races. Jake Conlon posted an impressive 9 second pb to take a silver medal in the 200m backstroke and then swam 5:49.01 for the 400m freestyle, a 20 second pb! Hannah Willingham (13) performed well despite a recent illness to take a silver medal in the 200m butterfly. Three days after turning thirteen Laura Bailes was up against it and was probably the youngest in her age group. Despite this she narrowly missed out on two medals by tenths of a second but was pleased to post three new personal best times.

The clubs younger swimmers from age group 3 stood up to the challenge well. In the girls 400m Freestyle Libby Hannard picked up a Gold medal in the 9yrs age. The Boys 400m Freestyle 9yrs, Joshua Wormald won gold, in the 10yrs group Cameron Offen came 5th taking an impressive 19 secs off his previous time, Nathan Porter took 6th. The girls 9yrs 50m free saw Libby Hannard and Abbie Hill put in good performances. 10 yrs age group good personal bests were achieved, Paris Croll 5 secs and Iyanna Purdy 4 secs. Boys 9yrs free, Ben Shipley achieved a gold medal and a 6 sec personal best. In the 10/11yrs age group, Cameron Offen gained his 2nd Pb of the day taking 2 secs off and Michael Hill swam a 7 sec pb. In the 200m backstroke, Libby Hannard took the bronze in the 9yrs category also swam a 3 sec pb, good swims and pb's were also seen by Paris Croll (3 secs) and Iyanna Purdy a huge 24 secs off her previous time. Joshua Wormald gained his 2nd gold medal of the day in the 9yrs 200m backstroke. In the 10yrs category, Cameron Offen was narrowly beaten and took silver with an 11 sec improvement.

Day 2 of the meet was kick started by Paris Croll taking 3 secs off her pb in the 200m Breaststroke. Joshua Wormald picked up a bronze medal in his 200m breaststroke knocking 10 secs off his previous time. Next we saw the girls 9yrs 50m Backstroke, Libby Hannard collected her 2nd gold of the gala.

In the boys 50m backstroke 9yrs, Ben Shipley gained a 6 sec pb. In the 10yrs age group Cameron Offen gained his 2nd silver of the weekend and a new personal best and a Yorkshire Qualifying Time.

In the Girls 200m freestyle, good pb's were achieved by Paris Croll (8secs) and Iyanna Purdy (19 secs)

Next up was the boys 200m Freestyle 9yrs, Ben Shipley took bronze with a impressive 22 second personal best and Joshua Wormald took 4th, in the 10yrs group, Cameron Offen gained his 5th pb of the weekend knocking 7 secs off his previous time.

Setting the tone for the weekend was Megan Gray who won A Grade gold (9 year-old age group) in the first event of the meeting, the girls' 400m freestyle in a time of 6:31.15, beating her previous best time by 28.59 seconds. Picking up silver in the same event was Ruby Willingham, competing just ten days after an ear operation, with an 18 second personal best time (6:52.32), further personal bests in this event were set by Madeleine Tait, who set new best times in each of her races, improving her time here by 28.55 seconds (6:23.17), Emily Wilkinson reduced her best by 22 seconds (6:19.12), and Hollie Verity hers by 15 seconds (6:02.98). In the girls 50m freestyle Megan Gray picked up a speeding ticket in the nine-year-old category with a personal best time of 36.53, and amongst the ten-year-olds Lily Hawkard came third in the A Grade to pick up a bronze medal in a time of 35.29. In the eleven-year-old category Madeleine Tait took 2.1 seconds off her previous best time (36.04), Hannah Bird swam below 40 seconds for the first time (39.39), and Natasha Clark took B Grade Bronze amongst the 12 year-olds (41.41); sadly, Emily Wilkinson sneezed on the starting blocks and was disqualified which spoiled a clean sweep of personal bests for her. Another swimmer narrowly missing out on a clean sweep of best times was Leoni Bull who registered eight improved times in nine races, after not having set a best time for over nine months, Leoni took a silver in the 200m backstroke and secured top four finishes in the 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 100m butterfly, and 100m backstroke where she narrowly missed out on a Yorkshire qualifying time. Jolie Bull, taking her sister's lead, set four personal bests in six races, swimming the 200m freestyle under 3 minutes for the first time (2:54.85)setting a 13 second personal best, and also taking a B Grade bronze in a 9 second personal best time. Also performing well in the 200m freestyle was Ruby Willingham who took a B Grade gold with a 10 second personal best time (3:19.08). Ruby picked up another gold medal in the 200m backstroke and this event proved successful for Hannah Bird who smashed her personal best time by 19.61 seconds (3:24.27), Madeleine Tait lowered her best time by 15.66 seconds (3:18.49), and Natasha Clark beat her best time 14.6 seconds (3:24.24). B Grade bronze medals were won by Hollie Verity in the 200m butterfly with a 17 second improvement (3:48.7), and Natasha Clark in the 200m breaststroke who improved her time by 23.28 seconds to finish in 4:12.82.

The Age Group 2 boys had a fantastic weekend as Liam Spence, who set seven personal best times in seven races, broke the 3 minute barrier for the first time in the 200m freestyle to claim B Grade silver in a time of 2:55.00, James Dodd also made a massive improvement in this event beating his previous best by 13.99 seconds to finish in 2:57.88. Both Liam and James performed consistently well as Liam took 34 seconds off his 400m freestyle time to finish in 6:16.36 and 15 seconds off his time in 200m breaststroke finishing in 3:44.51. James Dodd, competing in the ten-year-old category, took B Grade gold in 400m freestyle, his first competition swim in this event, and followed this up with massive personal bests in 200m backstroke (3:13.64), reducing his time by 29.04 seconds to claim A Grade silver, and the 200m breaststroke (4:08.77) where he reduced his time by 23.84 seconds.

The Regional squad was represented by a group of swimmers from the younger end of the squad

In the boys events brothers Heshaw and Rewa Mardan collected 13 medals between them, 15 year old Hesh collected gold in the 50m frontcrawl and 50m fly and silver in the 50m breaststroke, 200 and 100m frontcrawl, 100m fly, and 50m backstroke.

12 year old Rewa competing in his first big meet was rewarded with is hard training collecting gold in the 200m breaststroke, silver in the 100m breast, 100m frontcrawl, 50m backstroke and bronze in the 200 and 50m frontcrawl.

The regional squad's other brother's Fionnbhar and Connor Downes, only swimming on the first day of the meet produced some quality swims. Fionnbhar taking 1st place in the 50m fly two 2nd places in the 200 frontcrawl and 50m breaststroke and 3rd place in the 100m free. Connor secured gold in the 100m free a bronze in the 50m breast.

Competing in his first two day meet 17 year old Aaron Arksey showed he had promise with securing two 2nd places and two 3rd places in the 100 br, 50 fc 200 fc and 50 fly. Ben Chapman getting back to form secured a 1st two 2nd and a 3rd place in the 50m fly, 50 fc ,100 fc and 200 bk.

Ever improving Ben Annis secured a well deserved gold in the 50 fc and pb's in his other races. Always to show form in racing 15 year old Dale Ferriby produced a fine swim in the 400fc to secure a silver medal to go with his 2nd place in the 50 fc and two 3rd in the 100 bk and 50 bk . 15 year old Joe Morris swam two excellent pb's in the 100 fc and the 100 br and then rewarded for his efforts with a 2nd in the 50 br.

Not to be out done by the boys the girl's continued in the same vein. Zoe Webster was back on form collecting gold in the 50 breaststroke and three bronze medals in the 200 and 100m frontcrawl and also in the100 breaststroke.

15 year old Emma Beadle started the meet in the 400 fc securing gold with a 3rd place in the 100 fly.