THE recent May Bank Holiday weekend saw swimmers from Gainsborough Dolphins descend upon Spalding for the 27th annual Tulip Open Meet hosted by South Lincs Swimming Club. What proved to a hugely successful and enjoyable weekend resulted in the 21 swimmers returning with personal best times galore and 36 top six places, including two firsts, ten seconds and six thirds. To add to this remarkable fete the Club finished seventh overall with ten of the swimmers accumulating enough points to finish in the top six in their age groups. The two victories both came on the second day of competition through 17 year old Megan Stevenson and 12 year old Henry Cawte. Leading a nail biting 50m freestyle sprint from start to finish Megan was immense as she held off the competition whilst Henry, in his less favourable stroke, secured gold with a huge six second life time best in the 100m backstroke. Megan also qualified for three other finals as she took third in the 100m freestyle and backstroke whilst she placed sixth in the 100m butterfly. In the boys 12 years Henry capped off an excellent weekend as he made the final of all his events with fifth in the 100m butterfly but he was twice touched out by the narrowest of margins in the 100m freestyle and breaststroke. Competing in their first Open Meets were a trio of nine year old girls in Harriet Webster, Molly Creed and Katie Bindon whilst it allowed the ten year olds of William Walmsley and James Beresford and 11 year old Cammron Bower the first taste of 100m events. These youngsters did themselves proud as Molly reached two finals, placing second in the 50m backstroke and third in the 50m freestyle. Katie also reached the final of the 50m backstroke to finish in sixth whilst Harriet just missed the final of the 50m butterfly finishing seventh. William and James reached three finals apiece as the former finished second in the 100m butterfly and freestyle, with third in the 100m backstroke. James swam superbly well to claim second in the 100m breaststroke which he followed up with fourth in the 100m freestyle and sixth in the 100m backstroke. They both had to settle for seventh place and first reserve for the final in the 100m breaststroke and butterfly respectively. Also making three finals was Loveday Beresford in the girls 11 years age group as she swam life time bests to claim second in the 100m backstroke and butterfly with a fourth in the 100m freestyle. The 13 year old pairing of Aarron Smith and Jack Boulton had another successful weekend as they both made four finals in their respective 100m events. Aarron finished fourth in the 100m butterfly and backstroke, fifth in the 100m breaststroke and freestyle whilst Jack was just missed the podium in the 100m breaststroke and freestyle with fourth place finishes. In the 100m butterfly Jack finished in fifth whilst he had to settle for sixth in the 100m backstroke. In the girls 14 years 100m breaststroke Tonicha Watson produced a fantastic swim to finish fifth in the final as did 18 year old Pete Trickett in the boys 15/O 100m backstroke. In the same event Will Cawte gained a personal best to finish third whilst he also made the final of the 100m butterfly to finish sixth. Competing only of the second day 21 year old Emily Wright was in fine form to finish second in the girls 15/O 100m breaststroke whilst she placed sixth in the 50m freestyle. The remaining top six finishes both came in the relay events as the quartet of Aidan Clover, Henry, Loveday and Lydia Waring finished sixth in the 12/U Individual Medley (I/M) whilst the 13/O event produced a fantastic effort. Megan anchored the relay on the freestyle leg and she had to dig in deep to hold off the competition to take second place alongside Peter, Will and Emily. Other results by swimmer (key: fc = freestyle, br = breaststroke, bk = backstroke, fly = butterfly): Aidan Clover (12 years) – 11th 100m fc, br and bk, 28th 100m I/M, 58th 50m fc; Loveday (11) – 7th 100m br, 12th 100m I/M, 26th 50m fc; Lydia Waring (11) – 14th 100m br, 51st 100m I/M, 15th 100m fc, 14th 100m bk, 69th 50m fc; Cammron (11) – 13th 100m br, 17th 100m fc; William (10) – 23rd 100m I/M, 41st 50m fc; James (10) – 24th 100m I/M, 50th 50m fc; Molly (9) – 7th 50m br; Katie (9) – 8th 50m br and fc; Harriet (9) – 16th 50m br, 14th 50m bk, 12th 50m fc; Aarron (13) – 17th 100m I/M, 27th 50m fc; Jack (13) – 19th 100m I/M, 20th 50m fc; Tonicha (14) – 11th 100m fc and bk, 26th 100m I/M, 46th 50m fc; Amy Evans (14) – 9th 100m fly, 11th 100m br, 15th 100m fc, 14th 100m bk, 32nd 100m I/M, 41st 50m fc; Lauren Zaitschenko (14) – 14th 100m breaststroke, 17th 100m fc, 39th 100m I/M, 64th 50m fc, 15th 100m bk; Megan (18) – 8th 100m I/M and 100m br; Will (16) – 7th 100m I/M, 8th 100m fc; Pete (18) – 7th 100m fly, 10th 100m I/M, 12th 50m fc and 100m br; Chloe Gilmour (13) – 15th 100m bk, 17th 100m br, 16th 100m fc, 65th 50m fc; Nic Clover (37) – 8th 100m br, 17th 50m fc. Relays results: Freestyle 12/U (William, James, Molly, Katie) 7th; Freestyle 13/O (Jack, Aarron, Amy, Tonicha) 14th. Individual age group awards: boys 10 years – William 2nd, James 3rd; boys 12 years – Henry 2nd; boys 13 years – Aarron 4th, Jack 5th; boys 15/O – Will 6th, Pete 11th; girls 9 years – Molly 4th, Katie 10th; girls 11 years – Loveday 3rd; girls 14 years – Tonicha 7th; girls 15/O – Megan 5th, Emily 8th. The Club would like to express their huge appreciation to all the swimmers for their outstanding performances and good behaviour, to the coaches (Mark Smith, Leanne Clover, Chris Webster and Nic Clover) for their dedication and support. Fully deserving is a massive thank you to all the parents and supporters for their rousing and incredible support over the weekend.
