Monaghan the hat-trick hero for COPS in Cardiff cup final

The COPS relay team that twice struck gold in Cardiff. From the left they are Anna Blakeley, Mia Leech, Amelia Monaghan and Jade Goode.

The youngster returned from the National Arena Swimming League (NASL) Cup Final - the blue riband event of club swimming - with three gold medals hanging round her neck.

She was a member of both COPS winning relay teams and also claimed an individual gold after touching first in the 14 years and under 100m breaststroke underlining her current number one British ranking in that event.

The two relay successes came in the 14 years and under age group.

The first was in the 4x50m medley where the COPS quartet of Monaghan, Anna Blakeley, Mia Leech and Jade Goode won in 2:04.11, finishing over two seconds faster than their closest rivals.

The same team then repeated their win in the 4 x 50m freestyle beating the Plymouth Leander team by .49 seconds.

COPS also won two individual silver medals and a relay bronze at the big event.

Rachel Wellings was just beaten into second place in the 16 years and under 100m backstroke losing out by two tenths of a second.

Also taking second place in the men’s open 100m backstroke event was Liam Knight, who finished 1.33 seconds behind British Championship medallist Xavier Mohammed.

The women’s open 4 x 50m medley team of Mollie Allen, Leah Roughan, Rebecca Burton and Bethany Saunders were leading the field after the breaststroke leg but were unable to maintain that position and they finished in a creditable third place.

COPS earned their place in the prestigious NASL Cup Final for the sixth year running by winning the East Midlands division title back in December 2015.

They were one of the country’s top 10 clubs to feature and qualified in eighth place.

And that turned out to be their final ranking in Cardiff after amassing 247 points, their second highest ever total, with just 20 points covering fifth to eighth place.

COPS scored maximum points in two relay events and one individual event and were placed fifth or higher in 21 events.

The full COPS squad was: Mollie Allen (18), Anna Blakeley (14), Stella Blakeley (12), Fabian Brudnicki (12), Rebecca Burton (18), Stuart Clarke (34), Jade Goode (13), Josh Graves (19), Matthew Gray (16), Sophie Griffin (12), Erivan Hamid (12), Holly Jaszkiewicz (15), Herbie Kinder (14), Liam Knight (22), Olivia Lee (12), Daniel Leigh (17), Mia Leech (14), Amelia Monaghan (14), Harvey Norman (15), Henry Pearce (14), Poppy Richardson (15), Myles Robinson-Young (14), James Rothwell (12), Matthew Rothwell (14), Leah Roughan (17), Harriet Salisbury (12),Bethany Saunders (17), Jamie Scholes (16), Connor Walker (12), Rachel Wellings (16), Hallie White (12), Harry Whiteman (16), Thomas Wiggins (17) and Christie Woods (16).

COPS head coach Ben Negus said he was delighted with the team’s performance in Cardiff.

“The opportunity for younger swimmers to be poolside with some of swimming’s elite athletes is one that they will hugely benefit from,” he said.