Top Performances from Hemel swimmers at Eastern Region Youth Championships
The best youth swimmers from Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk & Suffolk travelled to Basildon to compete in Eastern Region Youth Championships recently. Five Hemel swimmers qualified to compete in the Championships held in Basildon’s new 50 metre pool on 5th/ 6th May.
In his first Regional championships Matt Sherriff swam two PBs in 50m Freestyle (27.44) and 50m Butterfly (30.37). Brother Tom Sheriff had a very busy weekend competing in eight events over the two days. Tom had seven top 20 finishes, his best swim coming in the final of the 200m Freestyle where he finished in 8th place in a time of 2.04.93.
Freddie Woodcock qualified for 4 events, swimming at the young end of a two-year age band, his best showings being 12th spot in the 200m Backstroke (2.24.11) and 18th place in the 200m IM. Teammate Sam Piggott competed in 5 events, his best finishing place coming in 17th in the 100m Backstroke in a time of 1.05.57.
Finally Devon Prior rounded off the weekend with some excellent swims in the Girls’ 15/16 year age group. She swam six events and qualified for the Final of the 200m Breaststroke where she finished in 7th place.
Head coach Alan Doyle commented “I am very pleased with the results from the Regional Championships. We are now seeing our older swimmers qualifying for finals or being very close: with continued hard work in training we should see some swimmers challenging for medals really soon”.
Hatfield & Coventry Meets: May 12th /13th
Hemel swimmers Megan Pirrie, Ben Garratt and Thushi Kumarage competed in this event the weekend of May 12th /13th in pursuit of additional Regional qualifying times for the BAGCATS Regional Age Group Championship to be held in Norwich in June. Megan collected her ninth Regional time in the 100m Butterfly and Ben his seventh qualifying time in the 200m Back and narrowly missed out on the 200m Butterfly; well done to them both on this achievement. Elsewhere, Emily Jelfs and Aimee Abrey travelled to Coventry to put in long course practice for their Regional’s, where both put in solid performances in their individual events.
PBs and Top 3 finishes for Hemel Masters at the British Gas Masters and Senior Age Group Long Course Championships
A team of five Masters travelled to Pond’s Forge Pool in Sheffield last weekend to compete in the British Masters’ Championships against some of the UK’s top Masters swimmers. The team, comprising Pam Ware, Adrienne Monger, Kevin McKenna, Mark Ayres and Dave Pirrie performed well against some tough opposition.
Adrienne Monger collected a bronze medal for her swim in the 400m IM and also swam a long course PB in the opening leg of the 4 x 100m Freestyle relay, recording a time of 1.07.86.
Dave Pirrie collected a bronze medal in his age group in the 100m Breaststroke (1.24.18) and 4th place (3.10.75) in the 200m Breaststroke recording PB’s in both events. He also took 6th place in the 50m Butterfly.
A good swim from Mark Ayres in the 50m Butterfly saw him claim 5th spot, swimming a PB of 34.38. Mark also came 6th in the 200m Breaststroke swimming another PB of 3.20.18 – a good display as he had swum in the 4 x 100m Freestyle relay event only twenty minutes earlier!
After a long and tiring journey from his training camp in South Africa Kevin McKenna claimed 6th spot in the 100m Backstroke & 15th spot in the 50m Butterfly in a very competitive age group. Pam Ware had two swims over the weekend finishing 9th in the 100m Freestyle and 7th in the 50m Butterfly.
Finally a successful weekend was rounded off by some good swims in the 160+ age group mixed relay events, where Hemel finished 5th in the 4 x100m Freestyle & 5th in the 4 x 50m Relay events.
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