A SWIMMING club is over the moon after its young swimmers impressed in a regional competition.

Young swimmers from Halstead Swimming Club competed at the East Region Festival of Swimming for two weekends in a row.

The past two weekends saw the return of the over-12s in competition.

It had been 18 months since the pandemic shut down the club’s swim meets but the swimmers were thrown right back into the mix at the first weekend in Norwich.

The team, which consists of Kai Adams, Daniel Andrews, Jasmine Bale, Thomas Bale, Eloise Conway, Katherine Daynes, Chloe L, Emi Rayner, and Daisy Turp-Dawes, was competing against the region’s best.

It was their first inter-club competitive competition at an impressive regional level with the second weekend of the event taking place at the London Aquatic Centre.

No spectators were allowed, but the event was live-streamed into the homes of their friends and relatives via YouTube.

Emi Rayner, 12, swam on both weekends and came away with a bronze medal in the 50m backstroke.

The junior captain also finished in the top six in half her races.

Head coach John Lowe said he was very pleased with the team’s performance against strong opposition.

He said: “Just to qualify for the regionals is a huge goal, and our youngsters, swimming with all those talented swimmers from across all the east region counties, are top quality.”