Two sisters from Aldenham, one of whom was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, represented the Hatfield Swimming Club in a national swimming competition.
On Sunday, March 3, Isabella, 12, and her sister Lexi, 10, joined the rest of Hatfield Swimming Club to swim in the prestigious Arena League A team finals in Cardiff International Pool.
The competition was held over three rounds and the top 10 clubs in the country compete in different age groups to see who are the strongest of the bunch.
Isabella represented the U14 Hatfield Girls team and Lexi represented Hatfield U12 Girls team. Both Isabella and Lexi are a year young for these teams and so Hatfield hope they will be able to compete again next year.
They both swam extremely well and managed to help Hatfield to a fourth place finish behind Plymouth Leander, Millfield School and Guildford.
This is a great achievement for a small club like Hatfield and both Isabella and Lexi, the latter of whom won 10 medals at a recent county event, played a part in the achievements of the club.
Both girls managed to achieve personal best times in the events that they swam.
The girls’ dad, Mike, said: “I’m extremely proud of both of them, they swam incredibly well and achieved a lot.”
Isabella, who is ranked 7th nationally for her 100m short course backstroke in the 13-year age group, was diagnosed with diabetes in February.
Mike said: “It came as a real shock. We only started to see the symptoms once she broke one of her fingers and had to stop swimming for a while.
“But she’s back into it now and while she is concerned about it, she’s remaining positive.
“She knows that there have been Olympic athletes who’ve been successful despite having diabetes, so she’s trying to emulate them.”
Adam Peaty MBE, Olympic swimming champion for Great Britain, was in attendance at the Cardiff event and the girls were honoured to meet him and take a picture with him.
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