Twelve Hemel swimmers qualified for the East of England Regional Championships at Luton over the May Bank Holiday weekend. It was a hectic weekend with many swimmers competing in relays and individual events.
The Hemel Relay teams produced some magnificent performances in the relay events. The first ever mixed 4 x 100m freestyle event was held with Tom Sherriff, Freddie Woodcock, Lois Moore and Aimee Abrey coming 5th in the Region. Aimee and Lois joined Kira Doyle and Paige Wilding in the 4×100 medley relay to come 8th and Grace Rayner stepped in for the Women’s 4×100 freestyle which came 11th overall. Tom and Freddie also competed in the freestyle relay with Jack Christie and Matt Sherriff to come 12th and Josh Gaines took the backstroke leg in the medley to lead off the boys to 13th position.
Two swimmers qualified for the prestigious Regional finals in their individual events. Tom Sherriff (18) had a busy weekend qualifying for the 200m freestyle final finishing a very creditable 6th. He also swam in the 400 freestyle placing 7th, 100 freestyle 16th, 100 fly 16th and 50 freestyle 22nd. Alex Hatt returned from Loughborough University to place 4th in the 50m Breaststroke final and 5th in the 100 breast.
Freddie Woodcock (17) also competed in the 50 back coming 17th, 50 fly 24th, 50 free 27th,100 free 23rd and 100 back 23rd.
Grace Rayner and Aimee Abrey both 15 competed in the 15/16yr old category in 5 events each. Grace just missed the 50m breaststroke final coming 9th and was 15th in the 100 Breast, 21st in 200 Breast, 48th in 50 Back and 61st in 50 Free. Aimee swam a long course pb of 29.81 in the 50 freestyle finishing 47th and took 27th in 100 free, 29th in 50 Back, 43rd in 200 free and 31st in the 200 Backstroke.
Paige Wilding (16) swam long course personal best times and finished 11th in 50 Breast, 20th in 200 Breast, 18th in 100 Breast and 24th in the 200 Individual Medley. Matt Sherriff (17) finished 25th and 26th in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Lois Moore (18) was 12th in 100 free and 15th in the 50 Back. Josh Gaines swam in the 200 Back finishing 23rd and Kira Doyle, Jack Christie and Molly McLoughlin all experienced swimming at Regional level for the first time. Jack was 25th in the 50 free, Kira 15th in 50 Breast and Molly 50th in the 50 Back.
Head Coach Alan Doyle said, “We have a great bunch of youth swimmers who inspire our younger members of the club. They have all done themselves and the club proud this weekend”.