Lucas Lee - British Junior Para-Swimming Championships, Alan Higgs Centre Coventry 8-9 June 2024

Last weekend saw Regional Squad’s Lucas Lee compete in the 2024 edition of the British Junior Para-Swimming Championships. Organised by Activity Alliance in partnership with Swim England the event boasted an international contingent this year with a Spanish team in attendance. As a well established part of the nation’s swimming pathway the competition aims to increase participation and talent development opportunities for young disabled swimmers. Many world and Paralympic medallists have discovered their talent at this event over the years.

Saturday morning saw Lucas compete in two events. The 100m freestyle was up first where Lucas dropped his personal best by -1.37sec to a 1:02.33min, placing him 5th in his age group and making a great start to the meet. An unfortunate DQ during his 200m Individual Medley however meant lessons were being learned in real time. But as someone once said, “we win or we learn”.

The 100m breaststroke and backstroke were on the schedule for Saturday afternoon, starting with yet another personal best with a whopping -3.26 seconds knocked off in the 100m breaststroke. But wait, the 100m backstroke saw Lucas almost double that with a huge -6.26 seconds taken off his backstroke time, taking a silver medal in the heat whilst earning a place in the final. Unfortunately Lucas couldn’t quite replicate the form of his heat in the final. But non the less this was an excellent afternoon’s work. But could Lucas back his efforts up for day 2!?… (Spoiler!.. you bet he could!)

Following a quiet drive down a sunny M1 there was a definite buz yet relaxed feel about the Alan Higgs Centre on Sunday morning. First up on day 2 was the S14 200m Freestyle. With only a single heat of S14 swimmers this was going to be fast and it certainly did not disappoint. Lucas would need to go out like a train and hold on, and he did exactly that staying with the leaders putting in a solid effort right up until midway. At the 100m point Lucas was just a few seconds over his new 100m personal best. From there on in it would be all in and not listening to the pain. No PB this time but his gritty effort earned Lucas yet another silver medal in a time of 2:19.22mins. 

After a flurry of 50m freestyle races it wasn’t long before Lucas was heading back over to marshalling for his 100m butterfly. As promised in his pre-race talk and as practiced in his warm up, Lucas did indeed hit the race with a 6-fly stroke breakout (6 butterfly strokes without breathing) and only taking a single breath in the first 25m before hitting the turn in 14.28seconds. Certainly a brave tactic but would it pay off? He held split times for the second and third 25’s almost identical, so what more could he ask of himself. The perfect short course race would see the 4th 25m being the quickest of the whole race (minus the dive off the starting 25). I have no doubt Lucas gave it his all but on this occasion, and despite the gallant effort he finished 5th in his heat, earning a Bronze medal in his age group, and a place in the final with yet another new personal best time of 1:11.11min. The final saw another brave starting 25m, much more even 25m splits and a super quick finish, all in a time of 1:11.98min earning an 8th place finish. Superb Stuff Lucas! 

Individual medal tally for the weekend - 100m Backstroke Silver / 200m Freestyle Silver / 100m Butterfly Bronze - well done Lucas from all of us here at Doncaster DARTES SC, we are beyond proud of you!

Heats and finals finished, we weren’t done just yet! 10mins later with names scrambled it was time for a treat to some super quick mixed classification, mixed gender 50m freestyle relays. As with all relays, the buzz and the volume of the Alan Higgs centre immediately picked up. Placed in "Team Gold Coast" Lucas was adamant he wasn’t swimming the anchor leg and as his team lined up it looked like he’d been talked into it. As the race unfolded he dove in 3rd place swimmer and gave a superb performance for his team. Luckily no blow up crown to take home finishing second last but who cares, it was bucket loads of fun and Lucas walked back from his race with a huge smile on his face. Although I’m not sure where that went during his medal photo at the end. Smile next time Lucas! 

All in all a great competition to attend and be part of, so thank you and well done to the organisers.

Also, thanks to Jo (chief supporter/team manager/not to mention MUM), thanks to Keith at Richmond Dale for looking after Lucas on Saturday. Also massive thanks to Chris Goddard over at Dearne Valley SC for his continued support of Lucas.