Aimee Willmott and Anna Hopkin led the way for Britain as teams from London Swimming and the East Midlands ASA competed at the Trophée National des Hortillons in Amiens, France over the weekend.

As the only Olympian on show, Willmott lived up to her billing with three wins. There was little surprise that she comfortably won the 400IM, posting a time of 4:41.49 in doing so, but there were also wins in the 200m freestyle and 200m breaststroke. A third place in the 200m backstroke rounded out her visits to the podium. Willmott also swam medley in the final of the 400 freestyle, posting a quicker time than the individual event with 4:38.17, but that won’t count for ranking purposes.

Ealing’s Hopkin ended 2016 ranked second in Britain over 50m freestyle, so by that token is first in the queue to fill the void left by Francesca Halsall’s recent retirement. She showed solid early season form as she starts trying to do just that, winning the 50m freestyle in 25.66 and adding the 100m free gold. She also won the 50m butterfly and took a silver medal over 100m in the same stroke.

The standout performer for the East Midlands squad was City of Derby’s Eleanor Baldwin who took a double backstroke gold, and was runner up to Hopkin in the 100m freestyle. She added another runner up position in the 200m freestyle behind Willmott to make it 4 medals from 4 swims with the added bonus of lifetime bests in both freestyle events.

Amongst the men, Barnet Copthall’s Yaron Gerber took a brace of breaststroke wins in the 100m and 200m and added third place in the 50m. Meanwhile Willmott’s London Aquatic Centre teammate Michael Gunning, returned from France with a win in the 200 fly and runners up spots in the 200 and 400m freestyle.

Full results are available here for the London and East Midlands teams.

Banner image courtesy of GBSwimstars