Josh Weston secures nice collection of distance medals with open water gold

After a silver medal at the Swim England Open Water National Age Group Championships in 2019, Josh Weston went one better this time around.

The Wycombe District swimmer made it a hat-trick of distance medals as he claimed gold in the Boys 17/18 Years 5k race.

He added his open water gold medal to his 1500m gold and 800m silver from the Speedo British Summer Championships in July.

Weston was the only swimmer in that race to go under the hour mark, with a time of 00:59.36.

Maidenhead’s Jack Booth Rudd was the silver medallist and Newcastle’s Josh Denholm came third.

Weston was slightly disappointed with his time but pleased to take the win.

He said: “I’m pretty happy with the result, the race was good, I held a strong pace.

“Not too happy with the time, I think I probably could’ve been a bit faster but I can’t complain with the position.

“From that first buoy I held first, just built a lead and continued. I think pace wise there’s definitely room for improvement.

“I definitely think I can get a couple of more minutes faster but I’m happy with it.

On teammate Lucy Fox also taking gold, he added: “I’m really pleased. As a whole team performance including Lucy and everyone else who swam, we swam really well.

“It’s been a long three weeks since British Summers now but we’ve all swam really well so we should be happy as a team.”

Emily Forwood was pleasantly surprised as she took gold

In the Girls 17/18 Years 5k race, Emily Forwood of Mount Kelly topped the podium.

Recording a time of 1:05:19 was enough to take the gold medal, a result she explained she was ‘surprised’ with.

Amelia Ayling of Portsmouth Northsea finished in second place and was followed by Barnet Copthall swimmer Jessica Arundale for the bronze medal.

After receiving her medal, Ayling said: “I’m really surprised with the result. I wasn’t expecting to win so I’m really happy.

“The swim actually went really well, the first four laps were comfortable and I just turned up the gas a bit on the last lap and pulled away then held on.

“It was a nice end to the season.”

Full results for the 5k races can be found here.

Pictures: Will Johnston Photography