ALTON & District Swimming Club fielded a strong team in the 2018 Hampshire County ASA Championships.

The event, split over three weekends and held at Portsmouth’s 50-metre Mountbatten Centre and Waterlooville’s Horizon 25-metre pool, saw Alton’s qualifiers go head-to-head with rivals across Hampshire – a county renowned for its strong swimmers.

Twenty-nine Alton members competed and pride of place went to Lottie Jackson who won two gold medals in the 13 years age group.

Lottie also picked up two silvers, while Mia Spencer won silver in the 15 years section.

The club also had a haul of nine bronze medals, including three for Tom Duddridge (12 yrs), two for Lottie Jackson (13 yrs) and Mia Spencer (15 yrs), and one each for Katherine George (16 yrs) and girls captain Rebecca Alder (17+ yrs).

In all, Alton swimmers recorded 89 personal best times and the club had 31 individual swims in the finals for races under 200 metres (200m and above races were decided on heats).

It was not just about medals, though. A club needs a strong team spirit and that was evident as the Alton swimmers supported each other before, during and after the races.

For Alton’s younger qualifiers, swimming at county level was a first taste of what it is like to race against the best from other clubs in the county.

But it wasn’t all as intimidating as it may seem – just ask the club’s under-14 swimmers who led a ‘YMCA’ routine on the start blocks as it played over the tannoy during warm-up.

• Alton Swimming Club, which covers the Alton, Petersfield and Bordon area, welcome new members. For more information, email SwimAltonSC@gmail. com