by Jayne Pennington

SIXTEEN senior Skipton swimmers made their mark at the Yorkshire Winter competition held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield last weekend.

Personal bests were smashed, 28 club records came tumbling down and top ten finishes including Yorkshire County Champion titles were achieved.

Packing a powerful punch as ever was 15-year-old Ned Sharp who qualified for nine events and achieved personal bests in all but two.

Sharp excelled all weekend and achieved a seven medal haul including five golds and two silvers.

He also picked up two fourth places in 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke.

Sharp, from Long Preston, broke 15-year age group club records in all his events except 100m backstroke. He also broke the open age group records in all except 50m and 100m backstroke.

Most notably he smashed the boys open 200m individual medley record which had previously been held for over 12 years.

He also secured the Yorkshire Swimming Association short course record for the junior boys 50m butterfly with a time of 24.95 seconds.

Teammate Paige Fenton of Silsden also tasted Yorkshire Winter success, achieving new personal-best times in all but one of her eight qualifying events.

Fenton swam strongly taking gold in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke events as well as securing national qualifying times and smashing two long-standing club records. Another noteworthy performance came in the girls 200m individual medley event where she beat her own club record by four seconds and came home in fourth.

Sophia Basaraba,13, qualified in four events and secured personal bests in each one.

Basaraba swam well all weekend but excelled in her backstroke events achieving top ten positions in both. She claimed second place and took silver in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1.08.09 and sixth place in the 50m event.

Clubmate Madison Turner of Salterforth had a successful weekend competing in seven events and improving her personal best times in all but one, most notably finishing fifth in both the 50m and 100m backstroke races with times of 31.48 and 1.07.14 seconds, respectively.

Turner has now qualified for an impressive ten North East Regional events.

Thirteen-year-old Harvey Pennington of Colne got reward for all his efforts as he qualified for seven events and secured personal bests in all but one.

His stand out performance came in the 100m freestyle event where he beat his previous time by 3.41 seconds, touching in a time of 59.69 coming in fifth overall.

Charlotte Leigh also had a great weekend competing in five events and improving her personal best times in all but one.

Most pleasing was her performance in the 50m breaststroke where she clocked 36.82, knocking half a second off her previous time and putting her well inside the North East regional qualifying time for her age group.regional squad swimmers return to Ponds Forge to compete in the North East Regional Championships next weekend.