Maldon skaters are among those to come home triumphant from the British Indoor Inline Speed Skating Championships over the weekend, after remaining resilient amid the challenges of the pandemic.

The Essex Speed Skating Club brought home a total of three British Champions and an astonishing 48 medals from the competition, which saw the newly-formed team face the uncertainty of Covid while training for events from Derby to Redbridge.

Despite still recovering from Covid-19, Ella Bennet, from Great Totham, brought home bronze in the 300m race for the pupil girls category.

The class of cadet girls was highly competitive, with four teammates competing against each other in a Dobbin sprint, which saw Rebecca Vale, from Maldon, achieve the fastest time.

Rebecca also won a bronze medal in the cadet girls' 500m race, while Izzy Judge, from Great Totham, took home bronze in the competitive 1000m race.

Rebecca and Izzy rounded off the day by taking home silver in the 2000m cadet girls relay, while Sophie Debenham and Presley Hughes - also from Essex - won the gold medal.

Sophie won two golds and a bronze to become the Cadet Girls Indoor British Champion, while Presley achieved her best performance of the season with three silver medals.

Another Essex champion returning home triumphant from the competition was Sophie Cook, who was the first to be crowned in the pupil girls category to become Pupil Girls Indoor British Champion, after securing three gold medals to put her in first place overall.

Jessica Markey made a clean sweep of all three of her races to become the Youth Girls Indoor British Champion.

The girls' coach, Jon Morrison, demonstrated his talent by winning two silvers and a bronze in the competition, which brought the eventful 2021 season to a close.

Jon said: "It was a gruelling few months as the pandemic hit the racing calendar and these athletes had to squeeze in multiple races to catch up and get all the 2021 titles out the way.

"I'm so happy with the team - their resilience to get back to full fitness during such a difficult few years has been amazing.

"The team is looking forward to great things in the 2022 season."

The club, which is mainly made up of residents from Maldon, Great Totham and South Woodham Ferrers, is now keen to grow its membership.

It welcomes anyone interested in joining - whether you want to compete in the future, improve your skating technique or just get fit.

You can see the skaters in action at Rollerworld Colchester at 9am on Sunday mornings for their training session, and you can find more details here.

You can also book to join the Speedercise class here - the class runs at 10am on Sunday mornings and is open to inline and quad skaters to improve speed skating ability and cardiovascular fitness.

For more information, visit the Essex Skating Club Facebook page here, or email [email protected].