A DOZEN swimmers from Warriors of Warrington took part in the Scottish National Age Group Championships, held over five days at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.

Warriors’ swimmers progressed to finals on a daily basis, with five winning gold, four silver and four bronze medals, while 21 swam a total of 21 national qualifying times.

Aisha Thornton, aged 17, broke the Scottish age group record for the 1,500m freestyle and also achieved gold in the 800m freestyle event, as well as national qualifying times and bronze medals in both the 100m and 400m freestyle.

She also proceeded to the final in the 200m freestyle, where she finished seventh.

Catherine Parker stormed to victory in both the 100m and 200m backstroke, achieving national qualifying times in both events.

Fellow 13-year-old Aimee Harvey achieved silver in the 100m butterfly and bronze in the 200m butterfly, both of which were national qualifying times.

Aimee also swam in the 200m individual medley final, where she finished fourth.

Tim Almond, aged 16, swam national qualifying times in the 400m individual medley and 100m butterfly.

He progressed to finals in the butterfly, 100m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke events despite competing in a 16 to 18-year-old age group category and finished seventh, eighth and fourth respectively.

There was bronze in the 100m butterfly and gold in the 100m freestyle for 14-year-old Jordan Barlow, who swam national qualifying times in those events as well as in the 200m and 400m freestyle.

Jordan also participated in the 200m butterfly final and 200m freestyle final, finishing fifth in both.

Michael Ross, aged 13, swam in both the 100m and 200m backstroke finals, achieving fourth place each time and gaining a national qualifying time in the latter.

Ewan Miller, who celebrated his 13th birthday on the first day of competition, swam some excellent personal-best times and achieved bronze in the 800m freestyle event.

Andrew McLay, aged 11, achieved silver and a national qualifying time in the 400m individual medley.

He progressed to finals in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke and achieved national qualifying times and silver medals in both.

Andrew also swam in the 200m individual medley final, where he finished sixth.

Caitlin McNicolas, aged 14, progressed to finals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke events, where she finished fifth and fourth.

She also participated in the 200m freestyle final, where she finished eighth.

Caitlin achieved a massive personal-best time in her 800m freestyle event.

Kathleen Dawson swam a national qualifying time in the 200m backstroke event and the 11-year-old also swam some excellent long-course personal-best times.

Also swimming in Scotland and achieving excellent times were Daniel Wass and Sally Jenkinson.

A small Warriors of Warrington contingent battled well at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, against very strong competition at the weekend.

Between them they accumulated 30 medals, six gold, 16 silver and eight bronze, while also managing three long-course national qualifying times.

The Warriors with national qualifying times were 14-year-old Rebecca Pye in the 100m backstroke, 13-year-old Michael Ross in the 100m backstroke, and 10-year-old Oliver Houghton in the 200m butterfly.

Oliver also won second place overall in the 10-year-old boys’ age group, while Ashleigh Wrench achieved third overall in the 11-year-old girls’ age group.

Michael Ross was second overall in the 13-year-old boys’ age group and Edward Shattock was third in the 16-plus boys’ age group.

Warriors were also placed third overall as a team, which was an incredible achievement given the quality of the competition.