Gearey, Marsden and Woodcock supreme in Gala
29 Oct 2012
Gearey, Marsden and Woodcock supreme in Gala
Youngsters from Pershore Swimming Club continued their recent excellent run of form at the weekend, recording 14 podiums at highly competitive Worcester Open Meet including six first places, six second and two third places.
The Open Meet, now in its 16th year, attracts strong swimmers from many of the bigger clubs in Worcestershire, Birmingham and as far as Yorkshire and Wales, with the Pershore swimmers smashing over 30 personal bests (PBs) and securing 23 County Qualifying Times (CQTs).
Top club swimmers at the event were William Gearey (9), Naomi Marsden (10) and Isabella Woodcock (10) who each notched up two first places each against strong opposition.
Swimming against boys nearly a year older, William's first
victory was the 50m Fly. Qualifying in
second place (40.15) in the heats in the Boys 9-10 year old 50m Fly, William
smashed his previous PB to take victory in the final in a time of 38.80, rising
to 4th in the UK rankings for his age group. William's second victory over the weekend
came in the Boys 9-10 year old 50m Freestyle.
Qualifying in first place in a new PB of 33.78, William flew out of the
blocks in the final, powering down the first 25m and extended his lead on the
turn to take first place in an excellent 33.18 û a time which puts William up
to 3rd in the UK
rankings. William also got second places
in the Boys 9-10 year old 200IM in 3.13.69 (CQT), the 50m Backstroke in 40.81
(CQT) and 200m freestyle in 2.43.05 (CQT) as well as a third place in the 200m
Backstroke in 3.07.47 (CQT). His time in
the 200m freestyle sees him rise to fifth in the UK end of year rankings 2012. It was no surprise with all this individual success William secured 1st place overall in the 9 year boys BAGcats with 891 FINA pts scored
Naomi Marsden (10) produced a series of excellent
performances, again showing that she is a force to be reckoned with in the
backstroke. Naomi took her first gold in
the Girls 9-10 year old 100m Backstroke in a new PB and CQT of 1.26.65, putting
her third in the current County rankings in her age group. She then took her second gold in the Girls
9-10 year old 50m Backstroke. Naomi
qualified in first place in the heats in a new pb time of 39.98 and in the
final she led the other swimmers from the front, powering to victory in a new
PB of 39.05 and rising to the top of the County rankings for the event. She nearly made it a hat-trick of victories
in the back stroke, narrowly missing out on first place in the 200m backstroke,
taking second in a time of 3.06.33 (CQT).
In her final event of the weekend, Naomi produced a stunning performance
in the Girls 9-10 year old 50m free style, taking a magnificent second place in
the final in a time of 35.43 (CQT). Naomi came 5th in the 10yr old Girls BAGcat with 1131 FINA pts
Isabella Woodcock (10) again showed her class in the breast stroke, winning two first places and like Naomi also narrowly missing out on a hat-trick. First up for Isabella was the Girls 9-10 year old 100m Breast Stroke, with Isabella recording an excellent time of 1.36.04 and a new PB and CQT. Isabella now tops the County age group rankings after this performance. Isabella's second victory came in the Girls 9-10 year old 50m breast stroke. In the heats, Isabella showed her class with a time of 44.45 to qualify for the final in first place. In the 50m final, Isabella went even faster, leading from the front in a time of 43.72 seconds. Isabella secured her second CQT of the day and again rose to the top of the County rankings. The 200m breast stroke just eluded Isabella, who managed was just beaten into third place by strong opposition from Redditch and Halesowen in a time of 3.34.27 (CQT).
Owen Leeks (12) finished off the day for Pershore in style, notching up an excellent third place in the Boys 11-12 year old freestyle. Qualifying for the final in fourth place in a time of 32.19, Owen stepped up his game in the final to take bronze in an excellent time of 31.35 û which was a new PB and also another CQT for the club.
And Simon Sweatman (10) finished second in the Boys 9-10 year old 400m freestyle in a time of 5.20.61, just beaten by three seconds by his Halesowen rival Ben Meakin.
Other notable performances for the club came from some of the young swimmers coming through the ranks and competing in their first Open competitions.
Megan Annis (9) had a couple of excellent swims during the weekend, securing CQT in the 50m breast stroke (52.35) and 50m free style (39.69), ensuring her place at the County Championships in at least two events next year.
Patrick Heeks (9), one of the youngest swimmers at the meet, also produced a couple of excellent performances, posting a time of 40.67 in the Boys 50m free and his first County Qualifying Time and just missing out on his 50m backstroke CQT recording a new PB time of 47.87.
Other swimmers recording CQTS over the weekend included Charlotte Downey (9) in the 50m Breast (52.72), Chris Vizard (10) in the 200m backstroke (3.09.70), Josh Sharratt (11) in the 200m back (3.06.14), Isobel Cumming (10) in the 200m back (3.19.08) , Elizabeth Vizard (13) in the 50m breast stroke (40.24) and Sam Doyle (9) in the 200m free (3.25.04) with older brother Joseph Doyle coming 3rd in the 13 year olod Boys BAGcat on 1292 FINA pts
Tim Gearey.