East Regional Championships bring out the best in COPS swimmers

This was the last chance for members to qualify for the British and Home Nations Summer National championships, with 20 COPS swimmers now set to make appearances at the Summer Nations thanks to their performances at this meet, all the more impressive given the exceptionally difficult qualification times required.

This was the first time since the start of the pandemic that the championships had been able to go ahead, so the excitement through he club was at an all time high as the team, led by head coach Ben Negus, competed over two weekends in Norwich and Luton.

In all, 53 swimmers qualified, producing 82 final appearances, 21 bronze medals, 18 silver medals and 14 golds.

Orlando Dearing won top boy in the 14yr age group, while Rufus Bennett took bronze in the 200m butterfly final.

Josh Sackree won silver in the 50m free, bronze in the 200m breast, silver in the 100m breast and bronze in the 400IM final, while Maya Sangiorgio won bronze in the 200m fly final and bronze in the 50m fly development final.

Head coach Negus said of the Championships: “We are on the road to recovery after lockdown and our expectations leading into this meet were lower than the outcome, so we are delighted with our meet and end results.

"Our goal is to be in a place in 18 months time that sees us challenging for podiums at this stage and making national finals again. However, our presence at this championships was clear to see and even with a great medal haul, we still had 14 fourth place finishes, so the growth within the team is clear to see.

“I am really pleased for all 53 swimmers and the way they represented Peterborough in the East.

"The professionalism, behaviour and effort over the gruelling seven days of swimming was nothing short of excellent and part of the reason why we are seeing rapidly-improving growth in the team at this meet.”

For a full list of results, go online and visit www.eastswimming.org/wp-content/uploads/swimresults/2022/LC22/