A local gold medal winning paralympic swimmer given Freedom of Middlewich

By Deborah Bowyer

12th Nov 2024 | Local News

Paralympic gold medal winning local swimmer, Poppy Maskill was given Freedom of Middlewich along with Linda Boden and Jean Eaton. (Photo: Stewart Green)
Paralympic gold medal winning local swimmer, Poppy Maskill was given Freedom of Middlewich along with Linda Boden and Jean Eaton. (Photo: Stewart Green)

A paralympic gold medal winning local swimmer has been given Freedom of Middlewich at a ceremony in the town where she originally hailed from.  

Medal winning Poppy Maskill, whose swimming talent was spotted at Alsager Swimming Club, received the award Middlewich Victoria Hall.

Poppy originally from Middlewich won three golds and two silver medals at the Paris games earlier this year but her talents were spotted when she started swimming in Alsager. 

Poppy's former coach Phil Balcombe. (Photo: Phil Balcombe)

Among those delighted with Poppy's recent accolade is her former coach Phil Balcombe.  

Phil coached Poppy from mid-2015 when she was just 10 years old until March 2023 when she was 18 and already a world champion as we revealed here .  

Phil previously told Nub News: "Poppy is an extremely hard worker. She probably missed fewer than five sessions in the 10 years that I was her coach.  

"I thought Poppy had the right ingredients to be a good swimmer from day one, but only after she was classified in 2018 did I start to think she would go all the way to the top.  

"Poppy is a very modest swimmer. Very few of her teammates resented her success and I think they all benefited from her being on the team. She would even turn up early and help coach the younger swimmers."

Two other people also received Freedom of the Town at the same ceremony at the weekend - Linda Boden for her many years of fundraising for SAD's and Jean Eaton for her 50 years of volunteering services.

  •  

Sandbach Nub News is an on-line community newsite.  

Free from clickbait, pop-up ads and unwanted surveys, Sandbach Nub News is a quality online newspaper for our town. 

Please consider following Sandbach Nub News on Facebook  or Twitter and signing up for our weekly newsletter here

  

  

     

New sandbach Jobs Section Launched!!
Vacancies updated hourly!!
Click here: sandbach jobs

Share:

Related Articles

Lots of jobs available in our jobs section. (Photo: Nub News)
Local News

New jobs available in Sandbach now: Homecare assistant, hydraulic engineer and more!

Police say enquiries are continuing and a visible policing presence will remain in the area. (Photo: Nub News)
Local News

Man, 38, left with 'life changing' injuries following firearms incident near Sandbach

Sign-Up for our FREE Newsletter

We want to provide sandbach with more and more clickbait-free local news.
To do that, we need a loyal newsletter following.
Help us survive and sign up to our FREE weekly newsletter.

Already subscribed? Thank you. Just press X or click here.
We won't pass your details on to anyone else.
By clicking the Subscribe button you agree to our Privacy Policy.