DEVONPORT Royal’s Abigail Daly returned home with a stunning five gold medals from the National Para-Swimming Disability Championships (25m) in Manchester.
The event attracted more than 260 swimmers from across the country, including Rio Paralympic stars Ellie Robinson and Jessica-Jane Applegate.
Mount Kelly’s Lily Macleod and William Perry also claimed multiple titles, while there were also gold medals for Plymouth Leander’s Annalise Burgess and Mount Kelly’s Ben Grainger and Alex Hobbs.
Daly’s success came in the S14 10-13 year-old girls’ category. She claimed victory in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events and the 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly finals.
The city youngster clocked 33.93 seconds for the 50m freestyle, 1:15.24 for the 100m freestyle, 2:52.24 in the 200m freestyle, 1:41.40 in the 100m butterfly and 1:29.98 for the 100m backstroke.
Mount Kelly’s Macleod and Perry both claimed four gold medals each at the championships.
Macleod’s titles came in the 14-17-year-old girls’ S13 category. She topped the podium in the 50m freestyle (29.94), 100m freestyle (1:03.73), 400m freestyle (4:49.83) and 100m butterfly (1:12.16) events. She also took silver in the 200m IM.
Perry won gold in the 14/17 year-old boys’ S6 50m freestyle (34.20), 100m freestyle (1:16.07), 50m butterfly (41.57) and SB6 100m breaststroke (1:39.95).
Plymouth Leander’s Burgess’ title came in the 14/17 year-old girls’ SM9 200m IM (3:13.34). She also won silver medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle events.
Mount Kelly’s Alex Hobbs won the 10/13 year-old’s S7 400m freestyle in 7:30.81. He also took silvers in the 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle and 50m freestyle.
Team-mate Ben Grainger triumphed in the 14/17 year-old boys’ SB9 100m breaststroke in 1:18.37. He was also second in the 200m IM.
There was a bronze medal for Caradon’s Matthew Clowes in the 18+ S8 50m freestyle event.
Plymouth Leander’s Cameron Vearncombe could not have come closer to medalling in the highly-competitive 14-17 year-old boys’ S14 category. He claimed two fourth places, two fifth places and came seventh in another race.
Other athletes from the area to claim top eight finishes were Caradon’s Adam Roebuck and Devonport Royal’s Andrew Keeler.
Meanwhile, a number of Kelly College swimmers impressed at the Scottish National Short Course Championships in Edinburgh.
Ben Staig reached two A finals and two B finals. He came fifth in the men’s 200m backstroke in 1:58.94, eighth in the 50m backstroke (26.14 seconds), 10th in the 200m IM (2:04.75) and 15th in the 100m butterfly (58.02).
Annachiara Bernardi also claimed two top eight finishes. She came seventh in the 400m IM in 4:54.19 and was eighth in the 200m IM. She also came 15th in the 800m.
Georgina Dennis reached the B final of the 200m IM and 200m freestyle, while Sam Peck reached the men’s 400m IM B final and Sara Mazzeo the women’s 50m back B final.
Following domestic events, all eyes will be on Copenhagen for the European Short Course Championships, which start on Wednesday and which will feature the likes of Ben Proud and Ruta Meilutyte.