Swimmers from Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club put up a valiant fight in the first round of the National Arena League at Hatfield this weekend. Competing against teams of national and international standing, Hemel swimmers put in an inspiring total of 46 personal best times.
One new personal best went to rapidly improving Lewis Beardworth, whose new time put him fifth in the 13/u 100m breaststroke. Yasmin Bier Allen and Matthew Sherriff each put in a PB in their 13/u 100m freestyle races.
Other individual PBs fell to Max Jelfs, Hannah Bagley, Gemma Brown, Sam Pigott, Megan Pirrie, Adam Daniell and Paul Mackie, with Louis Dunham, Tom Sherriff and Adi Monger scoring two each.
Joe Prior was named swimmer of the gala because of his unstinting commitment, attending as a reserve and throwing his full support behind his team-mates.
Hemel finished in eighth place, only five points behind the next best team, and will be looking to improve on this result in the following rounds of the Championships.