Melton Swim Club sisters perform strongly at national championships

Beth was the first to compete at the event, for swimmers ranked outside the top 24, but inside the top 48 in Britain.

She finished a creditable 15th in the girls’ 12/13 years 100m breaststroke after narrowly missing out on a new personal best time in what was her first swim at this level.

Beth was back in the pool the following day in her favoured event, the 50m breaststroke, and looked much more comfortable.

Her time of 36.20secs was very close to her PB and earned an overall position of 16th.

Leah had to wait until the final day of the championships to demonstrate her skills in the girls’ 17 and over 50m butterfly.

In the morning heats a personal best of 28.90secs was good enough to put her in the final as the third-fastest qualifier.

The evening’s final was incredibly close, with Leah leading up to the 40m mark, but the final 10 metres saw all the swimmers arriving at the wall together.

Separated by less than half-a-second, it took the electronic timing to decide the result and Leah was placed seventh in her first national final.