Swimmers from Rotherham Metro were once again in action at the second weekend of the Yorkshire Championships in Leeds with the club’s younger swimmers leading the way.

12 year old Debbie Cocking was in excellent form in the 100 metres butterfly. Qualifying fastest she went on to swim even faster in the final to comfortably claim gold in a time of 1 minute 8.41 seconds. Not only did this make Debbie Metro’s 2nd Yorkshire Champion of the year but also represented a new junior girls club record over the distance. Debbie also qualified for two other finals swimming to 4th and 5th position in the 100 and 200 metres breaststroke.

Abigail Jackson, 10, also proved her quality by scooping two medals a silver in the 200 metre breaststroke and bronze in the 200 metre Individual Medley. Grace James made an impressive debut at the championships by swimming to bronze in the 9 year old girls 200 metre breastroke event. This represented some great performances from these three young swimmers who were up against swimmers from all of Yorkshire’s big city and regional performance clubs.

There were also numerous other metro swimmers who swam well to reach finals and top ten finishes. Natalia Rhodes (9) also making her debut at this championships swam to tenth in the 200 metre breaststroke whilst fellow 9 year old, Callum Simmons, finished 6th in the 200 metre freestyle. Harold Cocking (10) finished 9th in the 200 metre backstroke whilst two 11 year olds had a terrific battle in the 200 metre butterfly final with Jack Anderson pipping Benjamin Gavelle, the boys finished 5th and 6th respectively. Jack also reached the 200 metre backstroke and breaststroke finals finishing 8th & 9th. 12 year old Jack Whitehurst was the only Metro swimmer to brave the grueling 1500 metre freestyle event and swam well to finish 5th. Connor Neal (14) had a busy weekend finishing 7th in both the 200 and 400 metres Individual Medley as well as finishing 8th in the 100 metres backstroke final. Also in the 100 metres backstroke 15 year old Robert Pearson swam to 4th place in his final whilst 16 year olds Abbie Hull, who produced a good swim to finish 6th in the 200 metre freestyle final, and George Russell, 4th in the 200 metre butterfly and 10th in the 400 metre IM, rounded things off for Metro.

Also swimming for Metro over the weekend were Kenyon Kellett, Alice Aucott, Dayna Towns, Shannon Eades Rebecca Britten, Ben Cliff, Devin Kellett, Daniel Lyon-Smith, Jack Fox, Connor Wood, Chloe Rooker, Jess Bushby, Jack McGann and Carys Neal.