THREE swimmers from Colchester Phoenix were in action at the East Region Paralympic swimming meet in Newmarket.

Helen Thompson, Mark Holmes and Holly Bocking, who all have Down Syndrome, are classified as S14 under the Paralympic system.

They were competing against other disabled athletes with a range of Paralympic classifications.

Thompson smashed over four seconds off her personal best (PB) times for the 50 metres breaststroke and 50m backstroke, winning a gold medal in the breaststroke.

She also swam in the 50m freestyle, where she was just outside her PB.

Holmes won an impressive three gold medals in the 200 individual medley (200 IM), 100m breaststroke and 50m butterfly.

Bocking won a bronze medal in the 200m IM, which was an impressive performance as it was the first time she has swum this event.

She also won bronze medals in her 50m butterfly and 100m breaststroke races. Head coach Julie Jago, who accompanied the swimmers to the Para Gala, said: “What a great evening’s swimming.

"It was good to see our three Phoenix swimmers putting all of the skills and speed learnt in training into their races.”