KINGSTON Upon Hull Swimming Club showed they are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in the north of England after they came back with 34 medals from the North Eastern Counties event in Sunderland.

The club took a squad of their younger up-and-coming stars to the competition and dominated the two-day event – winning a superb haul of 16 gold medals.

Under-11 swimmer Hannah Falkinder was one of the stars of the weekend as she won gold in the 200m individual medley, 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 100m backstroke, and also took bronze in the 200m backstroke – achieving personal bests in all her events.

Shannon McGahey ended up as the second best overall 10-year-old girl swimmer for the event after winning gold in the 200m butterfly, silver in the 100m butterfly and bronze medals in the 200m and 400m individual medley and the 400m freestyle.

Amy Beadle, 11, returned home with three gold medals herself after dominating the freestyle events in the 100, 200m and 400m, before taking silver in the 200m backstroke and being named best 11-year-old girl at the competition.

While the girls may have led the way for Kingston, who are based at Ennerdale Leisure Centre in north Hull, the boys still produced the goods when it mattered.

Bailey Hairsine, 10, won the 200m butterfly and the 400m individual medley and also took a silver in the 200m medley in a new personal best time of 2min 56.21sec and a bronze in the 100m butterfly.

Team-mate Daniel Stone ruled the pool in the backstroke, winning the 200m in 2:46.80 and getting a silver in the 100m, while he also took silver in the medley.

Nathan Greenwood also swam a new personal best in his 100m breaststroke, winning the silver, while William Dennis, 11, took gold in the 100m backstroke, silver in the 100m freestyle and bronze in the 200m backstroke.

Elsewhere in Sunderland, the older contingent in the squad were once again in top form as 12-year-old Roisin Kelly took gold in the 100m backstroke, silver in the 200m backstroke then bronze in the 100m freestyle.

Amy Felgate, 13, won gold in the 200m freestyle, while Grace Dennis came third before winning the 100m freestyle and coming second in the 200m and 100m backstroke

Eleanor Thomson, also 13, won gold in the 100m backstroke ahead of Dennis after an outstanding performance which took three seconds off her previous best time.