Northern Counties Age Group Championship at Wigan International Pool

WIDNES ASC were represented by just six age group swimmers at this final Northern Counties long course event of 1999 but what they were short of in quantity they made up for in quality.

13-year-old Leanne Maher was on the top of her form and enjoyed her best long course competition to date.

Leanne began with the 100m backstroke on Saturday and fought her way into the final with just one second separating five of the six finalists.

This young lady is at her best under pressure though, and she battled all the way for a great silver medal and a club long course record time of 1.14.0.

Sunday's racing started with her best event, the 100m breaststroke and she secured her final spot with a comfortable heat swim.

Then, not content with this achievement, Leanne swam a great 100m butterfly to secure another final place.

The breaststroke was always going to be close but Leanne surfaced in first place after a great dive.

With the rest of the field chasing hard she held her turn and forced the pace all the way.

Then in a nail-biting finish Nicola Laurie of Salford just got the touch from Leanne, whose national qualifying time of 1.21.5 is by far her best ever long course result.

Rebecca Cowan of Burnley finished in third spot, however, the young Widnes star found the energy to complete her third 100m final in the butterfly and finished in sixth place in a time of 1.13.6.

In the boys 15 years 100m breaststroke Carl Thomas was just edged out of the medals into fourth place by 0.4 seconds despite his late charge for the finish.

Brothers Stephen (14) and David (16) Hunt both reached the final of their age group 100m backstroke events.

David also finished strongly in his 100m freestyle race in a time of 58.7 to reach his second final of the day and came in in fifth place.

12-year-old Claire Dickinson took her 100m butterfly out very hard and was unlucky to just miss the final, finishing in eighth position.

Ladies team captain Heather Jones also competed with great determination and set a new club long course record of 1.06.8.

All-in-all a great result for the club's swimmers, showing that with determination and hard work it is possible to compete at the highest level and win.

The next competition for the club will be the Irish National Championships in Belfast in July and the ASA Age Group Championships at Coventry in August.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.