Hemel Hempstead’s swimmers produced some impressive statistics at our annual Birthday Open on Saturday 17th October: 144 Personal Best times; 53 Medals; 5 Club Records; and 3 Meet Records.
10 year-old Kyle Holmes rocketed into the record books with a Meet Record in the 9-10 years’ 50m breaststroke, beating Ricky Jones’ 2004 time of 45.10 with a 44.10. To add to his gold medal in the breaststroke, Kyle took gold in the 50m backstroke, silver in the 50m butterfly and bronze in the 100m IM.
Frederick Woodcock took a Meet Record previously held by Callum Candy since 2004 in the 11-12 100m backstroke, as well as two Club Records, bettering his own time in the 100m IM and beating the 100m butterfly record previously held by Curtis Barnett. Freddie scored five gold medals at the Meet.
Karla Turner was the third Meet Record breaker. In the 15-16 50m freestyle, her time of 29.40 took a record set in 2005 by Lauren Simmonds. The time also qualified Karla for the Skins event at the end of the night. She also took the 100m freestyle event and claimed silver in the 100m Individual Medley.
A new Club Record fell to Megan Pirrie swimming in the 9-10 years’ age group, breaking Katie McLaren’s 9 years’ record in the 50m butterfly in a time of 43.86. Megan also took the silver medal in the 50m breaststroke.
Lois Moore stole another Club Record from McLaren in the 13-14 years’ 50m freestyle, in a silver medal winning time of 30.12, qualifying her for the Skins event at the end of the evening in which she escaped elimination right up to third place. Lois took silver in the 100m freestyle as well.
The fifth Club Record to go was Pam Ware’s improvement by six hundredths of a second on her own previous best in the 17-and-over 100m IM. Pam took three gold medals, adding the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly to her IM triumph and making it through to the 50m freestyle Skins.
Tom Osborn was two-times gold medallist in the 15-16 100m butterfly and 100m breaststroke. Tom scored bronzes in the 100m and 50m freestyle and qualified for the Mens’ Skins event.
Paul Mackie was a gold medallist in the 15-16 50m freestyle and another Skins qualifier. He claimed silver in the 100m event and bronze in the 100m IM.
Dave Pirrie was Hemel’s other gold medallist in the 17-and-over 100m breaststroke with a silver in the 50m freestyle.
Arthur Woodcock was the swimmer who carried off the highest number of medals on the night, coming in the top three in every event with two silvers and four bronzes.
Thomas Sherriff took two silvers and two bronzes, with Kelsey Doyle and Hannah Bagley scoring two silvers and one bronze apiece.
Thushira Kumerage, still only 9, took a silver in the 9-10 50m breaststroke and bronzes in the 50m backstroke and freestyle.
Emily Jelfs made silver in the 9-10 50m backstroke with bronzes in the 100m IM and 50m freestyle.
Joe Prior and Harrison Robb each took home a silver medal, with Sam Pigott, Lauren Wilding and Jamie Keevill scoring a bronze each.
There were many other great swims and PBs from Hemel’s swimmers. The night was a success, not only in terms of our swimmers’ performances, but in raising funds for the club and playing host to a number of other clubs from around the County. Top visiting club award went to Watford SC. Congratulations to them and to all the swimmers who took part.
Full results are available on the Downloads section of the website.
Let the countdown to HHSC’s 100th birthday Open begin!