Pershore finish on a high.
26 Oct 2011
Pershore finish on a high.
Concluding last week's report, when members of Pershore Swimming Club came away with eight medals from the first two days of a three day competition, some of their eighteen swimmers were to strike gold once again on the final day finishing with their members appearing in thirteen of the eight sprint finals.
Eleven year old Tazmin Pugh competing in the 11/12 yr girls division struck gold immediately winning the 200m butterfly comfortably by 4 sec from the 2nd place girl. Qualifying in 3rd place for the 50m breaststroke finals found Pugh improving her personal best (pb) to 41.07 to finish with a bronze medal in the final. In the 100m freestyle Pugh secured silver with 1:06.53 whilst a gold medal was her reward for the 100m fly event. Her crowning glory for the weekend came in the 50m freestyle finals, when after qualifying in 1st place in the heats went on to record her first sub 30 sec with 29.79 leaving her 3rd in the UK (end of yr rankings) contributing 59 pts to the club's total.
Swimming in four events on the Sunday was Laura Snape (12) recording a 2 sec pb in the 100m free with 1:19.81 following this with 3:35.55 in the 200m breaststroke being a superb 9 sec pb making it pbs in all but one of her events over the weekend. Younger sister Beth (10) also did a 3 sec pb in the 50m breaststroke event with 1:42.45 and 45.65 in the 100m free 50m free respectively. Continuing her great work on her birthday twenty four hours earlier Lizzie Vizard (13) swam a 12 sec pb in the 200m back with 2:52.20 and another pb with 3:09.77 in the 200m breast finishing 6th and 8th.
Katie Sharratt (14) recorded 1:17.23 in the 100m free being a 12 sec pb, with Makenzie Christys (10) a 12 sec pb in the 200m breast with 3:47.70. Daisy Tolley (9) swam a 5 sec pb in the 50 breast (56.55) and a 1 sec pb in the 50m free with 41.99 as did Maisy Robertson (9) when she swam a 4 sec pb in the same event. Alex Dobell (14) swam a 2 sec pb in the 50m breast and improved again in the 50m free with 33.15 and again in the 100m free with a 2 sec with 1:13.39.
For the boys newly nicknamed 'Iron Man' Drew Jones (11) competed in every event for the 11/12 yr boys starting the day with a 4 sec pb in the 200m fly with 3:22.69 whilst a 2 sec pb in the 100m free won him a bronze medal as too in the 200m breast with a new pb on 3:13.71. In the 100m fly another pb of 1:29.31 was recorded finishing in 6th place. Jones qualified for the two 50m sprints on the day finishing in 6th place in the 50m breast and swimming to a new pb of 32.66 and 6th place in the 50m free, his two bronze medals being his reward on the day together with the previous day's two silver and two bronze medals contributing 41 pts towards the club's total. In his end of year county ranking Jones lies 1st in the six breast and fly events and in the top five of all other events.
Simon Sweatman (9) competing in the 9/10 yr boys had his most successful day since starting to compete a few months ago with immediately qualifying for the 50m breaststroke finals recording a 2 sec pb and then reducing this further when coming 4th in those finals with 50.57. A 16 sec pb reduced his time to 3:06.42 in the 200m back rising to 7th in the UK for the first time whilst a 4th place in the 50m free finals ended his day with his last pb of the weekend on 34.01 climbing to a magnificent 2nd place in the UK end of yr rankings. In the nine events Simon has competed in he is lying in 1st place in the County Rankings in eight of them.
Joseph Doyle (12) won a bronze medal in his best event the 200m back with 2:50.01 whilst he finished 6th in the 100m free with 1:13.99. Angus Jones (14) set three pbs in the 100m free, 200m back and 50m free the latter with a time of 32.47. Christopher Vizard (9) continued annihilating his pb's taking 12 sec off in the 200m back with 3:24.75 and 19 secs off in the 200m breast with 4:16.70 and like Sweatman is lying in the top five in the County Rankings in four of the seven events he has competed in so far. Owen Leeks (11) also improved his pb in the 100m free with 1:16.36 and in the 200m back swimming 2:57.00 and taking 5th place celebrating his second county qualifying time. A 5 sec improvement was recorded by Josh Sharratt in the 100m free with 1:25.87 whilst Harry Sykes shortlisted for the Junior Male Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sports Awards had to content himself with a cameo appearance for the weekend due to illness with making the finals and 5th place in the 50 breast and a 2:41.10 recorded in the 200m backstroke.
The weekend finished with Pershore hearing they had come 4th top visiting club (22 clubs present) and that Tazmin Pugh was 2nd Top Girl (approx 140 girls) winning 4 golds, 5 silver and 1 bronze medal and Drew Jones 7th Top Boy (approx 90 boys) winning 2 silver and 4 bronze medals. Tazmin Pugh also won her age group FINA pts challenge accumulated from best 50m sprint, best 100m, best IM, best 200m back, breast, fly, and 200m and 400m free with 2352 pts her nearest competitor back on 1896. Drew Jones came 2nd in his age group with 1409 pts with Owen Leeks 7th in the same division. Simon Sweatman came 2nd in 9 yr boys with 845 pts with fellow club mate Chris Vizard in 3rd place. For 10 yr girls Makenzie Christys finished 11th whilst Lizzie Vizard finished 10th in the 13 yr group. The club now has sixteen members (10%) who have qualified for the County Champs in February and March next year with of them fourteen lying in the top ten in 85 of the county rankings. PHOTO
Ian