On Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th July Evesham Swimming Club took 16 swimmers to the Gloucester City Swimming Club Open Meet at GL1. The behaviour and maturity of all swimmers involved, representing the club, was superb. I was immensely proud of every one of our swimmers.
In the 9 and under category Emily Byrd recorded four Personal Best times in the 50m Free, 50m Backstroke, 100m Individual Medley (IM) and 50m Breaststroke. Emily secured a 4th place in the 50m Free, 6th in the 50 Breast and a Bronze in the 100m IM (with a massive 9 second PB). In the 10 Year age group Louise Coumbe recorded two fantastic Personal Best swims in the 50 Breaststroke and 50m Backstroke.
We saw a number of successes in the 11 Years age group. Daisy Gregg achieved one Gold and one Bronze in the 100m Breaststroke and 50m Breaststroke respectively. In both events Daisy secured a County Qualification Time for the 2019 Championships. A further medal was achieved in the 100 IM, finishing in 7th place. Keira Anderson also performed exceptionally well in the 11 Years 100m Breaststroke and 50m Breaststroke; narrowly missing out on a County Qualification Time in both. Keira smashed her 100m PB by around 11 seconds and was awarded 7th place in the 100m Breaststroke and 6th place in the 50m Breaststroke. Rhys Tombs, William Green and Jamie Gilbert did the 11 Years age group proud for the boys by achieving many medal place finishes. Rhys Tombs finished in Bronze position in the 200m Breaststroke, 5th in the 100 IM and 50 Breaststroke, 6th in the 200 IM and 100m Breaststroke and 7th in the 50m Backstroke. Most of Rhys’ swims resulted in new Personal Best times which included 11 seconds taken off his 200m Breaststroke and 16 seconds off his 200m IM. William Green came away from the open meet with a Bronze in the 100m IM, 100m Fly and 50m Breaststroke, 4th in the 200m and 400m Free, 7th in the 50m Fly and 8th in the 50m and 100m Free. Again many of these swims recorded new Personal Best times including 6 second off the 100 IM, 7 seconds off 100m Free, 39 seconds off his 200m IM and a massive 1 minute and 2 second off his 400m Free. Jamie Gilbert took home a Gold medal in the 50m Breaststroke recording a time of 49.05. If Jamie can push closer to his PB next time we could see a county qualification from him.
In the 12 Year age group, Scarlett Begley achieved a Bronze in the 100m Breaststroke with a new PB, 6th in the 50m Fly (also with a new PB), 4th in the 200m Breaststroke (in a PB by 29 seconds), 6th in the 100m IM and 6th ion the 50m Breaststroke. Scarlett narrowly missed out on five county qualification times in the 50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke, 50m Backstroke and 100m IM. For the boys Jack Gregory finished 8th in the 100m Breaststroke and recorded two Personal Best times; in the 100m Breast and 50m Free.
In the 13 Years age group medals were only awarded to the top three finishers. Maisie Sandalls recorded a PB in all 5 swims over the weekend including an impressive 8th place finish in the 400m Free. Chloe Coumbe also recorded many Personal Best times including a massive 22 second PB in the 200m Breaststroke. Rebecca Leahey smashed her PB in the 100m Free knocking off 14 seconds and finished 12th in the 50m Butterfly. For the Boys 13 Years age group Sam Parker claimed a hat-trick of Gold medals in the 50m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke and 50m Fly and claimed Silver in the 100m and 200m IM. In the 100m Fly and 100m Breaststroke Sam was awarded a Speeding Ticket for being faster that the meet entry times. In the 100m Butterfly Sam qualified for the County Championships next year with an impressive 1:18.08. All of Sam’s swims recorded a new PB. Dan Jones also recorded three PBs on the Sunday, finishing with a Bronze in the 100m Backstroke and a 4th place finish in the 200m Free and 50m Fly. Dan is now 3 seconds off a County time in the 50m Fly and around 11 seconds off a County time in the 200m Free.
In the 14 Years age group Nathan Gilbert took home a Silver in the 50m Butterfly, Bronze in the 100m IM and finished 7th in the 100m Free and 50m Back. Nathan also qualified for the County Championships in the 50m Butterfly in a time of 33.03.
In the 16 and over age group Graham Begley recorded two personal best times in the 50m Back and 50m Free, taking the Silver medal in the 50 Back. Graham Qualified for the National Master’s Championships in all four swims; 50m Back, 50m Free, 50m Fly and 100m Fly.
All swimmers from the weekend should be extremely proud of their achievements. The team brought home a total of 39 medals including 9 Bronze, 4 Silver and 5 Gold. We now have three County swimmers for 2019 with Dan Jones, Jamie Gilbert, Keira Anderson and Scarlett Begley closing in on future qualifications. Sam Parker and Nathan Gilbert also closed in on additional events following excellent swims at the weekend.
The next opportunity to record official meet times is at the Worcester Swimming Club Open Meet being held at Perdiswell Leisure Centre on Sat 29th and Sunday 30th September. We have also been advised that the Wychavon Open Meet will again take place this year at Perdiswell on 24th and 25th November – run by Pershore Swimming Club. We hope to see new faces compete later in the year at both of these events.
Well done to all swimmers over the weekend.
Graham Begley.
(ESC Head Coach)