Seven Lincoln Vulcans swimmers have moved a step nearer to possible selection for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The talented youngsters have retained or gained places on the England Talent Development Programme.

As part of the British Swimming preparation for the Games and beyond, regional selection for the England Talent Development Programme took place this summer following outstanding performances at the British National Age Group and National Youth Championships at Ponds Forge.

The Programme aims to identify potential future medal prospects and offer them access to elite coaching, lifestyle support and performance mentoring to allow progression to National and International level competition.

Brothers Charles and Oliver Bitowt return for their third year on the programme, while club-mates Jack Burnell, Mollie Temple and Grace Conlon are back for their second year, together with new additions Hayley Williams and Lauren Freeman, the latter who has taken up a place on the Open Water programme.

The British Swimming England Talent 2009/10 initiative kicked off on October 4 with a series of 'Duels in the Pool' taking place throughout England between the eight ASA swimming regions.

Vulcans' swimmers competed on the East Midlands Level 2 team together with swimmers from Nova Centurion, Derventio and Northampton and were filmed during their races in order to provide valuable race analysis for the next camp to be held in November.

Notable performances came from Jack Burnell who established a strong lead in his 400m freestyle race coming in at 4.00.83.

Team-mate Grace Conlon, meanwhile, also swam a well-paced race moving from seventh to third place in a time of 4.34.26 with a strong final 50m swim.

In a tight 100m freestyle race, Hayley Williams took first place in 58.65 holding off two close challenges from the two East Region swimmers.

In the 200m freestyle, Charlie Bitowt posted a solid 2.00.83 performance holding third position from start to finish while brother Oliver also held third position in his 100m fly with 1.02.32.

Oliver was back in the pool within minutes of the finish for the 200 Individual Medley where he held onto the third position, again picking up the pace in the second 100m to finish in 2.18.32.

In the women's 200 Individual Medley, Mollie Temple demonstrated her strength in backstroke, by moving up three places to first position during the backstroke leg, posting a final time of 2.25.30 and taking second place at the finish.

To complete the Vulcan individual performances Hayley Williams again proved her strength in freestyle by taking first place in the 50m with a time of 27.60.

"Our swimmers performed exceptionally well this weekend against strong performances from some very talented athletes," said Lincoln Vulcans head coach Fred Furniss.

"Our swimmers have demonstrated that they can compete at this level which is good for them, good for our club and great news for British swimming which now has a huge range of talented swimmers to work with."

Final Results

Level 1 East 264, Level 2 East 244, Level 1 East Midlands 236, Level 2 East Midlands 254