On Sunday 29th November the National Junior Swimming Final was held in Enfield, London, involving the top eight teams in the country with the Southport Junior Team sponsored by Prestige Granite and Marble NW Ltd going into the final ranked number 1. At the conclusion of the 49 event gala they came out on top retaining their National title with a convincing team performance to be crowned National Champions for the second year running. The road to being named as the top junior (9 – 12yrs) side in the country began back in May when the club competed in the top division of the North West Micro League. Competing against teams from the North West in four galas in which they dominated each round. This placed them into the swim off to see who would represent their league in the North of England final. The swim off took place in Blackpool in September, in which the towns team won by forty points over Preston to comfortably secure their place in the northern area final for the fith year in succession. The northern final was held at Everton Park, Liverpool in October where the Southport team took on the other five top teams from the north, City of Newcastle, Stockport Metro, Lincoln Vulcan’s, Borough of Kirklees (Huddersfield, Batley and Dewsbury combined) and the Midlands representative, with the top four teams going through to the National Final. Unlike 2008 when it was a closely fought match between the town’s team and Kirklees, Southport dominated throughout, making them the northern champions for 2009, leaving the other big City teams some way behind. Southport went into last Sundays National Final as favourites after last years win and being the 2009 northern champions. Swimming against the other top seven teams in the country, City of Norwich, City of Newcastle, City of Leicester, Borough of Kirklees, Stockport Metro, Hillingdon (The capitals league champions made up of a number of clubs) and Thurrock. Again Southport got off to a flying start and after 10 events they were in first position by three points over Kirklees. After twenty they had moved to twelve points ahead over Stockport. Southport then placed the rest under great pressure with some excellent wins and with ten events to go were 26 points in the lead. At the 45 event mark, with four races still to swim Southport knew they had retained the title for the second year in succession. Not stopping there they then went on to win three of the last four races. As the gala came to the final event the cannon consisting of the fastest swimmer boy and girl in each of the four age groups 9, 10, 11 and 12 completing 25meters each. The Southport team consisting of Holly Hibbott, Isaac Lea, Amy Carroll, Cameron Leece, Olivia Disley, Tom Birtles, Lauren Cheston and Jordan Macdonald. The atmosphere at the Enfield pool was electric with full capacity of competitors and specators getting around 750 people cheering on their teams. The Southport team took an early lead and never looked back dominating the final race and smashing the existing national cannon record by over 2 seconds. The average time for each 25m being swam in 14.2 seconds incredible seeing the ages of the younger swimmers.

The National Final result being Southport 295, Stockport Metro 261, Borough Kirklees 242, City of Leicester 218, City of Newcastle 212, Hilllingdon 207, City of Norwich 188 and Thurrock 136. The outstanding performances by the Southport swimmers along with the cannon were the 9 year old girls, with Holly Hibbott breaking the backstroke and breaststroke record and Emma Whittingham breaking the butterfly and front crawl records. They where joined by the 9 year old team mates Niamh Wilgar, Rachel Boal and Catherine Alexander in breaking both 9 year team race records. Southport coaches and team managers were overwhelmed with the result, “winning last year was fantastic but go on and retain the National title as the best team in the country is unbelievable” They added “ The phenomenal rise of the club is down to the commitment of the swimmers, parents, coaches, helpers, the teams sponsors Prestige Granite and Marble NW Ltd along with the extra facilities obtained in the last year from Pontins and Swimscool at Marshside, we can now compete with the very best in the country.”

The 2009 National Junior Champions, Southport Swimming Club have been made up of, 9yrs Ben Holmes, Paulo Moniz, Isaac Lea, Ollie Sutton, Joe Mitchell, Emma Whittingham, Holly Hibbott, Niamh Wilgar, Catherine Alexander, Rachael Boal, Ella Johnson, Isabelle Redmond. 10yrs Cameron Leece, Cameron Cheston, Mathew McGregor, Nathaniel Ball, Harry Cooke, Nicola Fenna, Amy Carroll, Ellen Webster, Elle Delmonte, 11yrs Ryan Rimmer, Ethan Clark, Jacob Lea, Daniel Boal, Tom Birtles, William O’Donnell, Alec Scott Olivia Disley, Joanne Whittingham, Holly Knowles. 12yrs Sam Delmonte, Jordan Macdonald, Jack Swainson, Nathan Hall, Josh Moniz, Andrew Jansen, Lauren Cheston, Jade Forster, Lauren Whiteside and Sophie Wilcock.