38 Club records were broken during the recent Club Championships. Aimee Abrey led the way with nine, Charlie Rayner set a further six, and Emily Jelfs five. Special mention must be made of 8 year olds Holly Robinson and Tilly Stratford, both of whom broke the previous 25m backstroke record, with Tilly edging out Holly to be our youngest record breaker. Full details of all the newly set records can be found here. Some of the records that were broken were almost ten years old and had been set previously by swimmers like Bowden, Egan, Godridge, Varti and Woodhouse; names that will bring back fond memories for those who have been around the Club for a few years.
Georgia Purkis broke the 12 yr old girls 200 free record previously set in 2006.
For the 13 yr olds, Alice Fender broke the girls 400 free record, Max Jelfs set a new record for the 200 fly, whilst Charlie Rayner broke the 50 & 100 breast (both previously set in 2006), the 50 & 100 fly, and the 100 and 400 IM (the previous 100 IM record having been set in 2007).
Emily Jelfs broke the 15 yr old girls 50, 100, and 200 free as well as the 50 and 200 fly. The 50 & 200 free and the 200 fly were new open as well as age group records.
The girls in the 16 – 24 year old category are proving so dominant over their forbears that we’re considering changing the age criteria! But whilst the old system lasts, congratulations to Lois Moore who set new records in the 50 free and 50 fly (the latter also representing a new open record) and to Grace Rayner who set new records for the 50 and 200 breaststroke. Commiserations to Paige Wilding and Bethany Masters who also beat the old records in the 50 and 200 breastroke respectively but were pipped at the post by Grace.
Aimee needs a paragraph to herself. She broke the 100 free (the old record also being broken by Lois Moore during the championships), the 200 free (setting a new open Club record), the 400 free (last set in 2007) and the 800 free (last set in 2006 and also representing a new open record). She also set new records for the 50, 100 and 200 back (all three representing new open records). And finally she now holds the 200 IM (old record set in 2007, also broken by Grace Rayner and Paige Wilding) and the 400 IM (old record also broken by Grace Rayner). It’s safe to say that Aimee had a good meet!
For the 16 – 14 boys, Freddie Woodcock set new age group and open records for the 200 free, the 50 fly (breaking the record previously held by Head Coach Justin Langford!), and the 200 IM (where the old record set in 2006 was also broken by Tom Sherriff).
In the 25 and over category, Rachel Barber set new records in the 200, 400 and 800 free (the old 400 record having been set in 2003) and the 50 fly, whilst James McFarlane set new records in the 400 free and 200 breast.
And finally Tony Gaines regained his 200 fly record in the 25 and over category from Matthew Rafiq-Craske. According to our records, this event has only been swum three times by a master. First by Tony, then by Matthew and last weekend by Tony again. Each time they’ve swum it they’ve set a new record; we could be whitnessing the start of a titanic struggle!