Lincoln Vulcans do the double in the National Arena Swimming League

Lincoln Vulcans celebrated a double first last weekend when the A and B teams both won their respective galas in divisions one and two in round two of the National Arena Swimming League.

The A team – always a strong contender for the title in the region – travelled to Cambridge where they took on hosts Cambridge, Deepings, Kettering, Sherwood Colliery and Biggleswade.

Trademark strong performances and fast relay takeovers brought victory with 243 points over nearest rival Biggleswade on 212 points – despite being out-sized by several of the older open category swimmers from both Cambridge and Biggleswade.

The B team travelled to Loughborough where they took on Loughborough (host) CASA B, Daventry Dolphins and Dereham Otters in a very exciting evening where the final result hung in the balance to the very last race.

The LVSC B team lead the gala from the first race all the way through to race 48 out of 50 when they became level with challenger Dereham Otters.

In race 49, the ladies' open freestyle relay, the young Vulcans B team were behind at the final takeover when Sophie Roberts dived in and caught up with two teams to bring the team in second delivering a lifetime best time of 30.66.

This inspired the boys open relay team to win the last event and bring the team home in first place overall by a margin of four points.

There were 23 personal best times recorded by the B team in the gala including three for Beth Penford and Leanne Roe, two for Jack Bull, Emily Mills and Lucie Nicholls, and one for Sean Westerman, back from his injury, producing a 27.42 in the 50 front crawl.

Other team-mates who also achieved a personal best time included Charlotte Williams (100m breaststroke), Gabrielle Vickers (100m fly), James Fountain (100m breaststroke), Emma Penford (100m front crawl), Ben Edison (100m front crawl), Robert Wyatt (100m fly), Jude Sheehan (50m front crawl), Lewis Isherwood (50m breaststroke) and Kate Jolly (50m backstroke).

To the delight of head coach Fred Furniss, the B team achieved 45 top four placings out of 50 races including 14 first places, while the A team produced 47 top four placings including 25 first places.

For Fred Furniss' views see today's Lincolnshire Echo.