TEAM Ipswich exceeded expectations to claim a third place finish at the East Region Youth Swimming Championships in Norwich over the Bank Holiday weekend.The double county champions finished the weekend with 24 medals, including a top three finish in five out of the six relay events.

TEAM Ipswich exceeded expectations to claim a third place finish at the East Region Youth Championships in Norwich over the Bank Holiday weekend.

The double county champions finished the weekend with 24 medals, including a top three finish in five out of the six relay events.

The medal haul easily surpassed the previous best result from the Ipswich-based team, with even more swimmers making it to the podium.

Medallists included the girl's 4 x 100m freestyle team of Stephanie Calver, Rebecca Reader, Alex Seal and Helen Powley, who finished with the silver medal, while the 4 x 200m freestyle team of Stephanie, Rebecca, Alex and Sophie Poole came third.

In addition, the 4 x 100m medley relay team of Rebecca, Amy Swallow, Sam Berry and Alex Seal also came third.

The boys 4 x 200m freestyle relay team of Lewis Coleman, Troy Lynch, Chris Taylor and Andrew Bigley picked up a third place finish and were joined by Konrad Korth in the medley team who snatched another third spot.

One of the highlights of the meet was watching Alex Seal achieve the double win in the 50m and 100m freestyle (1.00.91) and in the process set a new championship best performance of 28.53 in the 50m.

Meanwhile, Lewis Coleman came away with gold medals in the 200m breaststroke (2.31.87), the 100m butterfly (1.01.09) and the 400m individual medley (4.50.65), a silver in the 100m backstroke (1.04.08) and a bronze in the 100m breaststroke (1.10.54).

Amy Swallow was also a double winner in the 50m breaststroke (35.76) and 100m breaststroke (1.18.12) along with silver in the 200m breaststroke (2.48.28).

Rebecca Reader won silver in the 100m freestyle (1.01.02), bronze in the 100m backstroke (1.10.10) and bronze also in the 50m backstroke (32.67).

Troy Lynch picked up silver in the 50m butterfly (28.16), while Andrew Bigley picked up a bronze medal in the boys 200m freestyle (2.02.23).

Stephanie Calver was a silver medal winner in the 50m (29.00) and the 100m freestyle (1.01.81), while Eleanor Haynes secured a well earned bronze medal in the 200m individual medley (2.34.14). Samantha Berry also secured a bronze medal in the girls 100m butterfly (1.10.89).

Other finalists included Helen Powley, Sophie Poole, Rachel Andvig, Lydia DeCarvalho and Chris Taylor, while April Hyam was the only Team Ipswich competitor in the 800m freestyle, finishing in 15th spot with an outstanding performance (10.20.81).

Other swimmers at the championships included Ben Matthews, William Boosey, Adrian Bird and Grace Williams.

Head Coach Dave Champion said: “With more medals being won by even more swimmers, progress is surely being made.

“We came with a target of finishing somewhere in the top 10 teams but we've exceeded that by a long way with Team Ipswich Swimming sitting in third place.

“Our swimmers train hard and they like to race and that's the reputation that they're getting and that kind of reputation can only be good for the future of swimming in Ipswich and Suffolk.”