This bank holiday weekend we had 9 swimmers travel to Norwich to compete in the East Region Championships 2016 (15 years and over). We had a total of 10 swimmers qualify and enter but Kira Doyle was a late withdrawal due to injury. 29 long course personal best times were swum including 6 new open long course records and 15 age group records.
Hemel had a number of swimmers qualify for finals; Jack Spence kicked us off on Saturday with the 50 Backstroke taking 7th place, closely followed by Max Jelfs who took 4th place in the 100 Freestyle. Sunday saw Ashley Coombes qualify for his first ever regional final in the 50 Freestlye taking a well earned 7th place, Max Jelfs took the silver medal in the 200 Backstroke with an excellent swim that saw him drop 4 seconds between the heat and the final and actually swimming faster than his short course PB in a long course pool. Max also finished 4th in the 400 Freestyle and made the 200 Butterfly final which he dropped to focus on the 200 Backstroke.
Bank Holiday Monday saw us with four finalists, Josh Gaines was 8th in the 200 Individual Medley qualifying for his first ever regional final. Jack Spence was 5th in the 100 Backstroke narrowly missing out on a medal in a blanket finish, he dropped over a second from his heat swim. Max Jelfs was 5th in the 200 Freestyle really pushing for a medal in another close race but the long weekend of racing caught up with him in the final stages. Alice Fender was another swimmer racing in her first regional final in the 200 Freestyle, she dropped two seconds off her heat swim and improved from her ranking of 8th to finish in 6th place.
Other swimmers taking part over the weekend were Jack Christie, Leanne Abrey, Page Wilding and Keelin McKenna who was also taking part in her first ever regional championships. All of those swimmers produced very solid swims throughout the weekend with some top 10 finishes. We had a number of Long Course PBs over the weekend.
New open club records were set by
Alice Fender (400 IM)
Josh Gaines (200 back and 200 IM)
Max Jelfs (200 fly)
Jack Spence (50 and 100 back)
New age group club records were set by
Ashley Coombs (50 & 100 free – the latter breaking a record which had stood since 2007)
Alice Fender (50 & 100 free and 400 IM)
Josh Gaines (200 back and 200 IM)
Max Jelfs (200 & 400 free, 100 & 200 back, 100 & 200 fly)
Jack Spence (50 & 100 back)
We now move on to the second weekend of Regionals (14 and under) which takes place on 28th – 30th May 2016 in Luton.
Our Regional Swimmers (missing from the photo Paige Wilding)
Max Jelfs Silver Medal Winner in the 200 Backstroke