The City of Norwich Swimming Club Youth squad took part in the in the ASA Eastern Region Long Course Swimming Championships in Luton.

A squad of 15 swimmers raced over three days competing against over 20 regional clubs. The competition was extremely strong with all swimmers endeavouring to post times in the ASA qualification window for National Championships in the summer.

Success stories for the team started on Saturday evening with the Girls relay 14-16yr 200m freestyle race. The squad was Megan Pye, Maisie Easter, Charlotte Walker, all 15-year-olds were joined by Sasha Thomas, 14. The girls recorded a time of 8:58.36 and this will hopefully see them qualify for the British Summer Nationals in July.

They went on to also compete in the 4x100m freestyle and finished third in a time of 4:05.19, a time which could also qualify them for the national event.

Senior squad member Louise Bush competed in the 17yr and over 200m breast stroke final and finished in second place in a time of 2:42.48.

Sunday brought success for the boys in the 200m butterfly 15yr old age group with Oliver Reek posting a time of 2:16.92 and being in third place. Fellow age group swimmer Mal Staff competed in the 200m breaststroke stroke final and also finished in third place in a time of 2:38.88. Both of these times will hopefully see these boys earn qualification to the Nationals.

Breast stroke specialist, Louise Bush, again had a competitive final and earned another silver medal in a time of 1:15.07. Maisie Easter competed in a highly competitive 15yr old girls 50m back stroke final and earned third place in a time of 31.01.

Bank holiday Monday saw great swims from Ben Blowers in the 200m 15yr boys race just missing out on a place in the final by 0.4 of a second.

Charlotte Walker competed in the 800m freestyle event finishing in 9:36.28 in fifth place and will probably make the nationals with that time, her 200m freestyle heat saw her qualify in for the final in second place in lane 5 and after a tremendous race Charlotte finished in 2:09.03 in third place.

Female 15-year-old swimmers Maddie Wright and Megan Pye both competed in the 50m butterfly heats and both girls made the final. Ultimately Maddie finished in sixth place with Megan with a time of 29:29.

Rikke Nagell-Kleven, a senior squad member, also competed in this event and she too made the final, touching in 28.63 in third place. The 100m girls back stroke heat time of 1:09.02 for Maisie Easter earned her a place in the 15-year-old age group final and she came third in 1-07.17. Overall a successful weekend for the club.

The squad has one last opportunity to post qualification times in a few weeks when they visit Sheffield's Ponds Forge International Swimming Centre where the No Frills Gala is to be held.

Please visit the club's website www.cityofnorwichsc.co.uk or www.norwichpenguins.co.uk to find further information on the full programme of classes and entry times for the forthcoming Junior Mini Meet on Saturday, June 10.