THREE of Skipton's young swimmers competed in the Swim England National Summer Championships at Sheffield last week.

Ned Sharp of Long Preston, Paige Fenton of Silsden and Madison Turner of Salterforth took part in the premier long-course event which took place over five days and attracted more than 1,500 of the country’s top young swimmers.

Qualifying and competing at this level requires dedication and discipline alongside “stand out” performances at level one meets during the qualification window. Entry is by invitation only.

Three personal best swims and three finals capped the National Championships debut of 14-year-old Fenton.

Day One saw Fenton take to the pool and swim straight into the final of the 15 years 100m breaststroke event with a time of 1min15.87sec coming 10th overall in the final.

Fenton’s next race saw her qualify fourth fastest in the 15-year-old 200m breaststroke heats with a time of 2.44.65.

She shaved another 0.87 seconds off in the final and touched in 2.43.78 to take fourth place with a new personal best time.

Fenton’s final event was the 50m breaststroke and once again she clocked a personal best in the heats with a time of 34.83.

In a fast-paced final, she beat her previous time and touched in 34.57, improving her placing from the heats and finishing sixth overall.

Ned, fresh from his victory at the British championships, raced in the 200m freestyle event coming 13th overall in a time of 2.04.42.

He is currently working on extending his range of distances at this highly-competitive level.

Madison Turner, 14, had to wait until the final day of the competition before she could take to the pool for the first time.

In her favoured 200m backstroke event, she knocked 0.76 seconds off her best time and secured a place in the final touching in 2.28.28. Madison, in her National Championships debut, finished 10th overall significantly improving her original ranking of 15th in the girls 14 years age group.

The British and National Summer Championships have been a successful end to another great season at Skipton Swimming Club. As both the swimmers and coaches take a well-earned summer break, plans are already well under way to kick start the new season with the annual club gala early in September.

This is a popular event in the club's calendar and all swimmers from national to novice level are encouraged to take part.