Ulverston swimmers were once again on the road pitting their skills against the cream of the North West taking in visits to Manchester (twice) and Sheffield.

Having achieved qualifying times for regional events, Amelia Mardel, 11, and Shannon Parker, 12, made a coveted appearance in the North West Regions U15s Championships at the Manchester Aquatics pool.

Mardel powered her way to a 32.13 finish for 50 Freestyle and despite being outside the award places her swim kept her well up to standard. Parker had similar results from her five events ranging from Backstroke to Butterfly and Freestyle. Her finest result came from the 100 Freestyle where she put in a terrific swim to finish in 1:08.96.

Later at the same venue Alix Knagg and Tom Robinson competed in the Manchester Aquatics Open Meet where again they proved their ability to take on the best. Knagg was in brilliant form and completely dominated the 50 Backstroke. Right from the start she stamped her mark on the event and tore away from her challengers and timed her finish to perfection to take Gold in 30.40. She then took on the 100 Backstroke and was just unfortunate not to pull off the double. Despite a brilliant effort in the storming finish she found herself just touched out into Silver medal with a time of 1:04.50. The gruelling 400 Freestyle saw her finish in 4th place.

Robinson took on three events and had some outstanding efforts but had to settle for places just outside the awards. As a sprinter his best result came from a brilliant effort in the 50 Backstroke where in a storming finish he hung on to a well earned 5th place in 29.25.

Meanwhile two other Otters Nicola Capstick and Shannon Parker made the trip to Sheffield’s Pond Forge International pool to compete in Rotherham Metro’s Open Meet. Capstick a Backstroke specialist was again at her brilliant best and off to a great start in the 50 sprint quickly got into the mix. Such was the quality in this race that the top four swimmers all finished in 31 seconds with Capstick having to settle for Silver. She had a similar result in the 100 this time she held out for her second Silver by City of Salford’s Emma Jones.