The final two weekends in January saw Team AXA Isle of Man Swimming Club competing in the Lancashire County Championships.
The team’s first weekend was a much quieter affair with only two members competing due to the arrangement of the programme.
Magnus Kelly, aged 10, and 12-year-old Blae Richardson completed every race in new personal best times, with Blae setting best split times on the way to overall PB success.
Magnus took Team Axa’s first medal of 2016 in the 200 metre individual medley for the 11-and-under age group.
The second weekend of competition saw a much larger representation from the island, with more than 20 athletes competing including the of the team’s Isle of Man Sport Aid recipients and also seven recent additions to the Sport Aid Academy.
The team produced a huge number of new personal best times in more than 90 per cent of all swims over the weekend.
Despite swimming against some of the toughest competitors in Britain, the team had representatives in every finals session.
The Isle of Man medallists were as follows: Magnus Kelly (11) silver in the 100m breaststroke and 50m butterfly, bronze in the 200m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley; Jack Fairhurst (13) silver in the 50m and 100m breaststroke plus 50m butterfly and bronze in the 50m freestyle; Brody Hewison (17) bronze in the 50m butterfly 17-and-over and open; Alex Bregazzi (17) silver in the 400m freestyle 17-and-over; Emma Hodgson (14) bronze in the 100m freestyle 13-and-under; Kazia Whittaker (15) silver in the 100m butterfly and bronze in the 50m butterfly 14-and-under.
Head coach Lee Holland praised the team across the board for their performances:
‘The medals and personal bests came thick and fast for our younger swimmers, with Jack Fairhurst entering the GB top-15 rankings for the first time and Magnus Kelly achieving No.1 GB ranking in the 11-year-old 100m breaststroke.
‘The senior athletes, for this was not a target meet and were not rested and tapered, performed well and raced really tough and learned some valuable lessons.
‘The girls’ highlight of the weekend was Kazia Whittaker winning silver and bronze in her preferred butterfly events and swimming within 0.2 seconds of the proposed consideration time for the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games ahead of the window opening.’