Grantham Grand Prix First Round
Mere Leisure Centre, Grantham. 27th February 2016
Back Row; Hannah Willis,10, Cordelia Barber,11 Edward Skells 12
Front Row Molly Paxton 11,Mollie Briggs,11,Emma Croker,10,Esther Skells 12
This was the 1st meet in a series of four, which will be held over consecutive months. It is a new
competition in the local swimming calendar organized by Grantham Swimming club designed to help
encourage young swimmers under the age of 12 to experience competitive racing. for the first time.
The team of 7 swimmers from Spalding along with coach Sian Roberts arrived at Grantham for an early
evening warm up full of nerves and excitement.
The evening kicked off in fighting style with the age 9-10 girls 50 m freestyle, Hannah Willis and Emma
Croker achieving personal bests .Hannah took first place with Emma taking second. Next to race were
Esther Skells, Mollie Briggs, Cordelia Barber and Molly Paxton in the 50m freestyle All achieved personal
best times.
Second up was Edward Skells in the 50 meter Butterfly again achieving a personal best performance
placing fifth in the race.
50m breastroke was next for the girls. Hannah Willis took first place in the age 9-10 category and all 6
girls swam personal bests.
Edward age 12, swam 50m backstoke again placing fifth with another personal best.
For the girls the 200 IM was the final race. Hannah Willis again took first place making it a clean sweep
on all 3 races in her age category. The other girls put in sterling performances, a number not having
swum this in competition before, with Esther Skells age 12 achieving a great time shaving off over 16
seconds on her previous time.
The final race of the evening was Edward Skells in the 200m Freestyle. He placed fifth and improved his
previous time by over 5 seconds.
The whole team swam their hearts out making the evening a really successful event. We are now
looking forward to the next three meets to see what other great achievements can be made.