A LONG and arduous season came to an end last week as four Wyre Forest Swimming Club members competed in the ASA National Youth Championships. The event at Ponds Forge in Sheffield was open to disabled swimmers of all ages and most of the Great Britain team bound for Beijing took the final opportunity to hone their competitive skills.

It was run on a multi-disability basis with swimmers being awarded points according to how close they got to the world record in their own classification.

Fran O’Connor (17) broke her own British record for the 100 metres freestyle by almost two seconds as she secured fourth place in the final behind three Beijing-bound swimmers.

This raised her to sixth in the world rankings. In the 50m freestyle she gained sixth place.

Luke Ladbrooke (17) recorded a personal best time in the 100m backstroke to qualify for the semi-final where he was unable to repeat the performance and missed out on a final place.

Scott Allin (15) set a personal best time in the 100m backstroke and just missed out on a personal best in the 200m backstroke.

Eliza Bradley (14) competed in the 50m freestyle and was just five hundredths of a second outside her personal best.

All will have gained invaluable experience of competing in such a tense and highly charged atmosphere, which will be of great benefit to them in the years to come.

Fellow club member, Claire Cashmore, representing Kelly College, showed she was back to her competitive best as she recorded personal best times in the 100m butterfly, 200 m individual medley and the 200 metres breaststroke to finish her preparations prior to going to Beijing.

Speaking at the end of the championships, head coach, John Howles, said: “The nationals are a fantastic opportunity to compete against the best swimmers in Great Britain.

“There were some great performances which will have provided our swimmers a great springboard for the future”.