COMPETITORS from Irvine and Kilwinning are celebrating another highly successful weekend for the North Ayrshire Amateur Swimming Club team.

They won dozens of medals, top six placings and Personal Best's at the Cumbernauld Spring Graded meet.

Among the many great swims Junior Coach Alan Dickson is making special mention of 10-year-old Lewis Gibson from Kilwinning, who showed true grit as he swam his way to four podium finishes.

Dickson revealed: “Lewis was actually being treated for tonsillitis all weekend, and despite being on anti-biotics he managed to secure a silver medal in the 50m Free in a personal best time.

Lewis also collected a trio of third places in the 100m Backstroke, 100m Free and 200m Individual Medley . There were also stand-out performances from the girls in the squad.

“Erin Moore’s just stepped up to the 10-year-old age group and her results were really good given that she was up against girls who were potentially a year older than her,” says Alan.

Erin’s fourth place in the 200m IM was an 8 second PB and took seven seconds off her 100m Fly.

Elder sister Eilidh (11), collected a second in the 100m Breaststroke and a 3rd in the 100m Backstroke.

Robyn Cotter (14) from Kilwinning was also delighted to shave four seconds off her record in the 100m Breaststroke.

“For some of the swimmers it was their first competition away from one of our home pools and it was a big learning curve for them about how to manage themselves across a full day of competition,” said Alan.

“For the younger ones it’s a real challenge to make sure they’re drinking enough and making smart choices about what they’re eating and I think they’ll have taken something away from that experience.

“The Cumbernauld meet is set up really well for these young swimmers. For some of them it’s the first opportunity they have to swim the heats and then keep themselves properly warmed up and motivated to swim in a final later on and most of them managed to go faster again which is the name of the game.”