Deepings Swimming Club compete at the national masters and regional short course championships

Deepings Swimming Club have returned with a fantastic set of results from the National Masters Short Course Championships.

Laura Hardy, Chris Orchard, Graeme Abrahams, Chris Jones, Helena Waters and Paul Smith-Shelton ably represented the club at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

Orchard had qualified for the World Aquatic Championships in Doha earlier this year when he set a new Lincolnshire county age group (65-69) record.

And his fantastic form continued at the National Championships as he came home with the gold medal in the 400m individual medley after smashing his own county record by more than six seconds.

Hardy swam superbly in the 40-44 age group and achieved four top 10 placings with two personal bests set in the 200m and 400m freestyle. She returned home with two sixth places, a seventh and ninth spot.

Abrahams managed two personal bests in the 800m - where he was placed sixth overall - and 400m freestyle in the 35-39 age group.

Smith-Shelton demonstrated his breaststroke prowess in the 55-59 age group with a top 10 finish (seventh place) in the 100m breaststroke and by finishing in 11th place in the 200m event.

He also showed his versatility with a top 10 placing (seventh) in the 200m individual medley.

Waters did well in the incredibly competitive 18-24 years age group with a couple of top 20 placings (200m freestyle and 200m individual medley) and a strong swim in the 100m breaststroke.

Jones proved he is a top national standard sprinter in the 55-59 age group by taking a top 20 spot in the 50m freestyle with a sub-29 second time.

Three Deepings swimmers competed in a high-quality Midlands Short Course Championships event in Nottingham.

Oliver Shepherd, Jacob Briers and Corey Farley had qualified for the event which had approximately a quarter of the GB Olympic squad in attendance, making it the fastest Regional Championships in the country.

For a small club like Deepings to have three representatives at such a high calibre event is testament to the quality of coaching, the hard work from the swimmers and the high standards.

Shepherd lit up the pool in the boys 16 and under section with a stunning performance in the 800m freestyle.

He finished 27th overall and this performance improved his Lincolnshire county ranking to 11th and he also has another year in this age group to improve even further.

Briers was swimming in the junior (16 and under) event for the last time and had qualified for several events after putting in some excellent performances during the year.

He competed in the 200m individual medley, 200m backstroke and 200m butterfly.

Briers wiped 1.5 seconds off his entry time to finish in 19th place in the 200m individual medley.

Unfortunately, he was disqualified in the 200m backstroke but is still ranked third in the county in this event but swam well in the 200m 200m butterfly to finish in 15th place.

Fifteen-year-old Farley qualified to swim the 200m butterfly in the junior event this year and was the only girl to represent the club.

She worked hard in this physically demanding event, posting a time just outside her current personal best.

Farley is currently ranked third in the county and is the fastest female 200m butterfly swimmer in the club.