NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The club had 10 swimmers qualify for the National Championships in Sheffield which took place at the end of July and the beginning of August. Starting with the Age Groups Jack Scott (13yrs) won a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly and was 5th in the 100m butterfly. He also made the finals on the 200m individual medley and swam well doing Pb’s in his other events 200 front crawl and 400m front crawl and individual medley. Stephen Taylor (14yrs) qualified on three events 100, 200front crawl and 100m butterfly. In the 100 front crawl he did a Pb and narrowly missed the final. Sam Delmonte (11yrs) experiencing his first nationals came across some outstanding competition but made the final in his two events the 100 and 200m backstroke gaining 8th place. Moving to the girl age groupers Lauren Cheston (11yrs) won a silver medal in the 200m front crawl and bronze in the 400m front crawl. She came top six in all the other below events 100m and 200m breaststroke, 100m front crawl and 200m Individual Medley. All these fantastic results placed her in 2nd place for the overall 11yr girl swimmer in Britain. Charlotte Disley (11yrs) swam out of her skin making all but one of her finals in the 100m backstroke, 100 and 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley, again narrowly missing the 200m backstroke final. All these fantastic results firmly placed Southport Swimming Club on the national swimming map with the girl’s results placing them in the top ten overall clubs and having two swimmers in one final was fantastic. The success continued into the second week with the Youth Championships with Liz Simpkin (13yrs) winning her first national title and smashing the European record on the way in the women’s multi disability 100m butterfly. Taking the title and European record off one of her nearest rivals. Liz also made finals in the 100m backstroke and front crawl and 200m individual medley again doing Pb’s in most. Laura Halsall (14yrs) who swam magnificently in both the front crawl sprint events the 50m and 100m. In the 100m she came sixth but in the 50m her favourite event, she improved her time from the heats into the semis and then in the final winning a silver medal in a fantastic time of 27.33. She also swam well in her other events of 100m butterfly and breaststroke 200m front crawl and medley and 400m front crawl. Laura Hyland (14yrs) competed in the 100 and 200m breaststroke and swam well considering the misfortune of have an ear infection just prior to the championships. She narrowly missed out on a semi final spot in the 100m breaststroke just short of her pb. Zoe Patrickson (14yrs) competing in the distance front crawl events, 800 and 1500m knocked 8secs of her 1500m time placing her in the top 15 for her age in the country and in doing so did the 15yr qualifying time along the way.

SEPTEMBER 2008
September is going to a busy time for the club with the Tadpole League and The Echo Cup (Merseyside junior league) starting, The NorthWest Micro League Division A swim off for the Aqua team and the promotion gala for the Beavers, all for the juniors and the Liverpool and District Presidents Cup for the seniors. All with a possible increase in water time at Pontins with the sessions moving to 2 hours and for selected swimmers (10 and over) more regular and much needed 50m training sessions at the new 50m pool in Liverpool. BUSY AND EXCITING TIMES AHEAD. A fantastic achievement by you all in this the countries top competition, well done to you all.