30 swimmers competed in the Bishops Stortford Open at Borehamwood over the weekend setting over 50 personal best times from just over a hundred swims with 11 gold medals and 24 second or thirds. Congratulations to Millie Anderton who achieved her first ever Regional Qualifying time in the 50 back. At 11, Millie is the youngest of Hemel’s twenty-two regional qualifiers to date, and with six weeks of the qualifying window still to go her new QT means that we have equalled the record number of 76 qualifying times set last year.
Nathan Whiting had a very succesful meet with three golds in the 200 and 400 free (the latter his first competitive outing at this distance) and 200 breast alongside three other second or third places. Nathan swam five PBs in his six swims with 12 second improvements in his 200 free and 200 breast and 9 seconds in his 100IM. Dylan Kennell won two golds in the 100 and and 200 back, both with 10 second improvements, and set a massive 30 second personal best in the 200 IM. Grace Cawley also won two golds in the 50 and 100 back whilst Elliott Davies won gold in the 200 breast with a 19 second PB, one of five PB’s swum by Elliott in his five races. Izzy Anderton won gold in the 100 back, Millie Anderton won gold in the 50 back, and Kira Doyle won gold in the 100 breast.
Others who won second and third places were Freya Beresford, Seve Carillo de Albornoz, Cameron Clark, Lewis Clark, Charlotte Hingston, Kyle Holmes, Daniel Keates, Rohan Liddar, Justin Patrick, Luke Pestaille and Paige Wilding.
Harrison Newbury-Kemp broke the 1 minute barrier for the 100 free with a time of 59.87 seconds, whilst Benjamin Smith improved his 100 free time by over 20 seconds, alongside improvements of 9 and 7 seconds in his 50 free and breast respectively.
Thanks to George Cawley, Michael Holmes, Andy Pestaille and Simon Whiting who stepped in at short notice to help poolside.