THEY’VE gone long in the first championship of its kind for swimmers in the region, writes SALLY JONES.

Liverpool Wavertree aquatics centre staged the inaugural North Wales regional long-course championships.

Despite some teething problems - namely accessing WiFi and results platforms - Swim Wales organisers were largely delighted with the operational smooth running and high calibre swimming on show at this fledgling event.

Wrexham Swimming Club were well represented at this meet with a squad of 49 young athletes, ranging from a host of relative newbies, many of whom were swimming at their first long-course event, to seasoned performance squad stalwarts chasing qualification times and faster heats for the up-and-coming Swim Wales Easter nationals.

During what is, right now, an intensive training block for many of the swimmers, Wrexham head coach Stephen Parker acknowledged that this championship was not particularly in sync with the performance squad’s current programme, geared intentionally towards peaking in readiness for the nationals in Swansea in a month’s time.

However, the swimmers clearly didn’t get the memo, and banked an unprecedented overall tally of 83 per cent personal best times across a weekend of fast swimming and gutsy performances.

Amongst the youngsters, 11-year old Lily Upton and Noelle O’Hara, and 12-year-old Caitlin Elson demonstrated their potential as future national level swimmers, with Victoria Madras, 13, scoring her first national qualification time in her 50m breaststroke.

Gold medals came in from all over, with 11-year-old Spencer Jones continuing his untouchable run of form with nine individual golds and one relay gold in the men’s draw.

Teammates Henry El-Taha, 11, Zac Campbell and Dyfan Bostock (both 14), 12-year-old Reece Linge and Adam Taylor (19) also dominated their heats and brought home multiple medals.

Over in the women’s draw, 14-year-old Joanne Andrews demonstrated that she too is currently without rival in her age group, snatching nine golds, one silver and one bronze in the individual events, in addition to two relay golds.

Bethan Roberts (12), Rebecca Taylor, Molly Bates, Annabelle Jones (all 13) and Ceri Roberts (16) also all had exceptional individual swims, and took home several medals apiece, cementing Wrexham’s dominance in North Wales.

This bodes well for a strong Wrexham Swimming Club performance at next month’s Swim Wales national long course Easter championships.