145 PBs or first time entries out of 200 swims, 17 new or improved County qualifying times, a new County qualifier, 1 new Regional qualifying time and 2 new Club records including the first ever holder of a 25 and over 200 fly Club record, male or female. All this and not a single DQ! It was a good Saturday evening – even if we missed The Day of the Doctor!
After extending the October Birthday Open to include 200m events we expected the number of PB’s at Club Championships to be reduced, but if the first session is anything to go by we’re in for a record-breaking haul with three out of every four swims in the 200m free and 200 fly throwing up new PBs or being a first time entry.
There were 17 new County qualifying times with special mention going to Amber Stratford for achieving her first qualifying time of the year in the 50 backstroke and Reuben Balch who having missed the 200 fly qualifying time by a frustrating 0.2 seconds only last week achieved it yesterday with a whopping 6 seconds to spare having already improved his 200 free qualifying time earlier in the evening.
Congratulations to Tom Sherriff who achieved a Regional qualifying time in the 200 free.
Last but no means least it was as always a pleasure to see some of our Masters competing at the event. Their contribution was crowned with two new 25+ Club records; for Rachel Barber in the 200 free and perhaps most remarkably for Tony Gaines who having been swimming with the Club for less than 3 months took time off from announcing to set the first ever 25+ time, male or female, for the 200 fly. Will others follow his lead next year?!
We haven’t had a chance to analyse all the figures yet so if anyone has been missed who deserves a mention please accept our apologies and let us know.
Here’s to more record breaking next Saturday.