No gold but silver lining suits COPS youngsters

They returned from the event for the 11-14 year-old age group swimmers with eight silvers and eight bronze medals - an improvement of six medals on the previous year’s performance.

And that delighted the club coaches.

Head coach Ben Negus said: “This was an encouraging step forward for our age-group swimmers. It’s a good improvement on last year’s medal tally and crucially our swimmers made more multiple final appearances. As a club we are pleased with this progressive step.

“I’m really pleased for the boys. Last year they only brought one medal home. However, this year they bring in an equal number of medals to our haul and this bodes well for the future.

“As a club we now look forward to the British and home nation championships in July and August.

“There’s just eight weeks to prepare and we can’t wait to move on from this positive step forward.”

Age group coach Rebecca Barsby added: “I am pleased how the squad turned up and committed to the whole event from strength and conditioning poolside to racing hard to be their best across a hot three -day meet.

“For many it was the first time they had raced under long weekend conditions.”

Top COPS swimmer racing against the best in the Eastern Region for the first time was Josh Martin, who collected three super silvers and a bronze.

His bronze in the 100m breaststroke was a real battling performance after he qualified for the final in last place and took the outside lane.

George Whiteman also had the COPS supporters on the edge of their seats as he fought back from sixth to win a bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle.

For the girls it was Ella McGhie (three silvers) and Harriet Salisbury (two silvers and a bronze) leading the medal charge.

COPS medal winners:

Female Medals (8)

Harriet Salisbury (three medals )

400m freestyle silver

800m freestyle silver

400m individual medley bronze

Ella McGhie (three medals )

50m back silver

100m back silver

200 individual medley silver

Jess Shaw (one medal)

200m fly bronze

Brenna Howell (one medal)

200m fly silver

Male Medals (8)

Josh Martin (four medals)

50m free silver

100m free silver

50m breast silver

100m breast bronze

Connor Walker (two medals)

100m fly bronze

200m fly silver

George Whiteman (two medals)

200m fly bronze

1500m free bronze

COPS regional qualifiers who took part were: Holly Graves (14); Jessica Shaw (13); Amy Paget (13); Jessica Mahoney (13); Harriet Salisbury (14); Brenna Howell (14); Kieran Griffin (12); Joshua Martin (12); George Whiteman (14); James Rothwell (14); Ruby Blakely (11); Ella McGhie (14); Sophie Griffin (14); Olivia Lee (14); Connor Walker (14); Kiara Kovac (14); Fabian Brudnicki (14); Safford Hewitt-White (12); Jamie Peacock (12); Mark Goodes (14); Josh Spencer (13).