Five of Hemel’s swimmers travelled to Norwich this weekend to compete in the prestigious Eastern Regional Youth Championships. This event draws together top swimmers from six counties, over-13 girls and over-14 boys. With exacting qualifying times, just being there is an achievement in itself.
Vickie Fisher, 14, was no stranger to the competition, but hadn’t previously swum the 50m backstroke, in which she opened this year’s campaign with a strong performance to touch home seventh fastest in the 14-15 age group. This secured her a place in the final. Swimming in an outside lane, Vickie put on a fantastic spurt to move herself up to fourth place, tantalisingly just outside the medals. With two 15 year-olds above her, she was the second fastest 14 year-old in the event.
In the 100m backstroke she pulled a great PB out of the bag with a time of 1.10.62. She finished ninth, missing a spot in the final by a frustrating six hundredths of a second. Her time was the third fastest posted by a 14 year-old.
In the 200m event, Vickie finished 14th.
Club Captain, Lois Moore, put in one of the swims of the weekend with a fantastic Personal Best in the 50m freestyle to come 18th in the 14-15 age group and post seventh fastest 14 year-old. Impressively, her time of 29.46 was less than a second outside the National Qualifying Time.
Another great swim followed in the 100m freestyle, in which she demolished her heat with a clear two-second lead, bettering many times in following heats. Lois’ PB of 1.03.98 gave her 21st spot and made her the 11th fastest 14 year-old.
Next year she will no doubt be looking to make a final and maybe that National time could be on her hit-list as well.
Lois qualified for three further events. In the 400m freestyle she finished 19th, she claimed 29th in the 200m freestyle and 32nd in the 50m butterfly.
Paul Mackie, 17, took to the blocks for his two favoured freestyle sprints. He swam consistently to form with a 24th place in the 100m and 28th in the 50m free, at the younger end of his 17-and-over age group.
Karla Turner, 17, put in a strong performance to come home 21st in her 50m freestyle event.
Tom Osborn, 17, made a quick dash in the 50m butterfly to finish in 29th spot.
Congratulations to them all. See below a photo of our Regional Youth swimmers and check out the photos section of the website for some more great snapshots of their weekend taken by Nadine Mackie
Look out for the East Region BAGCATs Championships for which eight of our younger swimmers will be travelling to Norwich during the first two weekends of June.
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