Published at 11:08, Thursday, 14 June 2012

SEASCALE swimmer Ellie Southward, 10, has been representing Ellesmere College Titans at the Midlands Age Group Championships in Coventry over the last two weekends.

Ellie Southward

For Ellie, who joined the Titans programme on a scholarship last September, this was her first regional championships, and she found that as one of the largest UK swimming regions, the Midlands offers a high level of competition.

Ellie was made to work hard and swam eight new long-course PBs to collect two bronze, four silver and three gold medals to win her age group championship with a total of 1662 Fina points.

She didn’t have things all her own way, losing out on the gold medal in both the 200m and 400m Freestyle events by a couple of tenths of seconds in two close finishes, in spite of recording impressive PBs both times. However she also surprised herself by taking the bronze medal in the 200m breaststroke, an event in which she wasn’t expected to even make the final.

Ellie said: “I have been working some extra breaststroke sessions with one of the Titans coaches to help with my Individual Medley events, but I really didn’t expect to make a breaststroke final, so winning the bronze medal in the 200m was a real bonus.”

Ellie’s last event of the season will be a long-course meet at Corby International pool in July before she comes back to Seascale for the summer school break.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk