ERIN NISBET captured gold at the third consecutive weekend of the Kent County Swimming Championships at Crystal Palace. The 11-year-old from Tonbridge Swimming Club also scooped two bronze medals.
Erin began the meet by qualifying for the final of the girls 12 years 100m breaststroke by knocking two seconds off her personal best (PB), as did her team mate Caitlin Ebbage. In the final, Erin retained her fifth position and shaved another second off her heat time down to 1min 27.73sec.
Elle Nikhwai swam to a seven-second long course PB in the girls 14 years age group.
Dan Brice pulled an excellent effort out of the bag in the final of the boys 13 years 100m butterfly to collect a well–deserved bronze medal and a new PB.
Dan was in fourth place with 15 metres to go before sprinting in to get his hand on the wall and give the Tonbridge boys their first podium finish of the championships.
In the 200m breaststroke heat Caitlin Ebbage recorded a 13-second PB. Erin was in the next heat and swam a perfectly paced race, taking six seconds off her PB and moving in to first place in her age group, with Caitlin now in second place. Erin went on to win the gold and Caitlin took silver.
In the final of the girls 12 years 100m butterfly Erin finished third and dropped her time by two seconds in a new PB and club record time of 1min 18.77sec.
Sarah Brown swam in the very competitive 16 years and over age group and swam a brave race, finishing with a nine-second long course PB.
In the 13 years 100m freestyle Dan agonisingly missed out on a place in the final by one hundredth of a second.
Erin and Caitlin faced the gruelling 200m butterfly at the end of the meet. Caitlin managed a three–second PB while Erin swam to a big nine-second PB and went home with another bronze medal.
Across the 11 events so far in the girls 12 years age group, Caitlin and Erin have featured in 10 podium finishes with Caitlin having won seven golds and one silver, and Erin winning a gold in the 200 -breaststroke and four bronze medals.
This weekend sees the county swimmers travelling to the London Aquatic Centre for the final weekend of the championships.
