Yet again Kingston upon Hull swimming club were on their travels. With half of the club travelling to swim in the Middlesbrough open meet and the other half travelling down the M62 to swim in the Sports Aid national qualifying meet held at the John Charles Centre for sport in Leeds.

Age group 1 and 2 travelled to Middlesbrough to swim in the Level 2 meet and came away with medals, regional and county times and a shed full of personal bests.

In form 13 year old Bailey Hairsine continued his string of good performances by achieving three North East Region times. In the 200m backstroke he knocked a massive 10 seconds off his personal best, swimming 2:30.90. The 400m freestyle saw him achieve a 6 second pb in a time of 4:45.34 and he rounded off the trio of NER times with the 100m backstroke. Solid pb's in his remaining five races made for a successful weekend and a job well done.

10 year old Aleah Ross took away the spoils in terms of medals, gaining three gold's and one silver from her six races. An impressive swim in the 100m freestyle in a time of 1:08.03 brought her first gold and a 13yrs old Yorkshire qualifying time! She backed this up with gold medals in both the 100 and 200m breaststroke races, achieving Yorkshire time in both and rounded off her medal haul with silver in the 100m backstroke in a time of 1:22.84.

Jack Woodcock (11) was on top form taking gold in the 400m freestyle in a time of 5:26.22 and gained a 12 year old Yorkshire qualifying time to boot. He followed this with a time of 1:10.56 for the 100m freestyle and 2:32.30 for the 200m freestyle, both 3 second pb's and again 12 year old Yorkshire times. 11 year old Lewis Collins gained two NER times in the 100 and 200m backstroke, swimming 1:20.96 and 2:50.90 respectively. He then went on to swim an 8 second pb and gain a Yorkshire time for the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:38.77. 13 year old Hannah Willingham walked away with a gold medal for the 200m IM and posted pb's for all eight of her races. 11 year old Megan Batterbee achieved some impressive personal best times over the weekend; 3:00.93 for the 200m backstroke saw her gain a Yorkshire qualifying time and an impressive 8 second pb. Danny Stone swam the 200m backstroke in 2:27.52 to gain a 5 second pb and again swam well in the 200m freestyle knocking 4 second of his previous best.

Two Age group 2 swimmers also travelled to Middleborough and performed admirably amongst the calibre of swimmers attending the gala. Ruby Willingham (9) gained a massive 27 second pb for her 100m freestyle and backed this up with 21 second improvement for the 100m breaststroke. 10 year old Hollie Verity gained a Yorkshire qualifying time and a 6 second pb for the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:50.16 and then capped the weekend off with a 7 second pb in the 100m butterfly.

The other half for the swimmers where at the 2012 long course sport Aid championship at Leeds over the weekend with meets being used by some swimmers to gain qualifying times for the forthcoming age group NERs.

Top honours went to James Rodmell who swam in only selected swims. James did a 1-2-3-4. He took gold in his speciality race 50 fly (28.6 a new pb), Silver in the 200 frontcrawl, bronze in the 100 breaststroke and 4th in the 50m frontcrawl. Session 1 on the Saturday morning started, with the girls then followed the boys 400 frontcrawl. 12 year old Shannon MaGahey and 10 year old Samuel Bailey both improving there pb's., Competing in the girls 100m frontcrawl Lauren Hall (14) produced a 5 sec improvement which gained her 3rd place, and with some great swims from Emma Beadle (15) who reduced her pb by 1.5 seconds. In the girls 50 backstroke Natalie Moon reduced her pb by 3 sec. In the boys 50 backstroke Fionbhar Downes, Hesh Mardan, Dale Ferriby and 13 year old Elliot Stephenson all managed slight improvements. In the girls 100m fly Emily Bailey and Shannon McGahey also improved.

Session 2 started with the girl /boys 400 IM, racing for the first time in this event Lauren Hall and Emma Beadle with Lauren securing a 3rd place medals

In the boys 50m frontcrawl, James Rodmell produced a fine swim to reduce his pb and a 4th place, as did Hesh Mardan and Conner Downes. The 200 backstroke event was next, in the girls Shannon McGahey was getting back to form produced a 3 sec pb. In the boys 200 backstroke William Dennis and Sam Bailey both lowered their pb's. William Madrell competed in the grewling 200m fly and when finished went straight in to the 100m breaststroke race where he was placed 3rd also placed 3rd in his age group was James Rodmell.

On the Sunday sessions medals yet again went to James Rodmell and Emily Bailey. James collected gold in the 50 fly and silver in the 200 frontcrawl, Emily took gold in the 100 backstroke and also swam in the 100 frontcrawl and recorded a 3 sec pb in her 200m IM race.

Lauren Hall had some tough swims and was rewarded with some fine pb's for her efforts 3 seconds in the 400 frontcrawl, 1 second in the 200 frontcrawl and 5 seconds 100 fly event. Emma Beadle also recorded a 3 second pb in the 200IM and showed a slight improvement in the 200 crawl, 100 back and also the 400 fc.