Pershore S.C. at County Relay Champs 2009
23 Jun 2009
Club Break all Records at County Relays.
Pershore Swimming Club for the first time in several years sent 17 swimmers to the annual County Relay Championships being held at Wolverhampton and with nearly all of the squad breaking their own personal bests (pb's) it was not surprising all the club records were broken as well.
The 9/10 boys team was made up of Drew Jones, Michael Evans, Joseph Doyle and Jack Betteridge. Evans broke his pb for the freestyle with 40.51 as too did Jones with 40.38, Doyle with 40.48 and Betteridge with 42.50. The team made the final with a time of 2:45.05 but failed to build on this setting 2:45.99 in the final. In the 4 x 50 Medley Relay the 4 four boys again broke their own previous times with Doyle 47.61 for the back, Evans 54.93 in the breast, Jones 52.28 in the fly an improvement of 10 seconds and together with Betteridge accumulated a time of 3:19.67 getting them into the final where they recorded 3:21.24.
For the 11/12 boys again Angus Jones set 44.25 in the backstroke leg of the 4 x 50m Medley Relay with Angus Evans 47 in the fly and with Harry Sykes doing the breaststroke leg and Tidiahn Woodward the freestyle leg they set a time of 3:02.65 making the final where a time of 3:07.92 put them in 8th position overall. In the freestyle relay the four boys set a time of 2:41.71 in the heats but just missed out on the final, but with Evans breaking 37.73 for the first time, Jones 41.31 similarly and also Woodward on 45.67 and Skykes a fine 36.60 they can all feal justifiably proud of themselves.
The 11/12 girls were made up of Katie Sharratt, Rhiannon Cordiner, Ashley Gribble and Frances Turner. Again it was a tale of pb's with Sharrat's 48.32 in the back, 50.84 for Cordiner, and a 7 second improvement for Gribble in the fly and with Turner still recovering from a months layoff with illness set a medley relay time of 2:55.32. For the freestyle relay the four girls set 2:34.52 with Cordiner and Gribble again setting great new times for themselves.
It was hoped the 9/10year old girls might just make the final in their first County Relay event even though the opposition would be tough against county clubs able to draw upon memberships of 400 plus, in the end they did not disappoint though they would have to wait for the medley to make a name for themselves. In the freestyle relay Tazmin Pugh set the quartet off with a fine 35.20 leg with Alison Seward setting 41.00, Ella Spencer 41.72 (pb), and Tessa Carr finishing with an excellent swim and a pb of 38.66, accumulating a time of 2:36.77.
The girls had one chance left to make a final and with Seward setting them off with a new pb for backstroke leg of 44.09, and breaststroke specialist Laura Snape coming in for the Medley team a fine 51.61 for her 50m leg, Pugh took over in 4th place and 10m behind. Pugh excelled not only swimming a new pb of 38.03 for the butterfly but in a most exciting conclusion to her leg managed to touch first and gave Tessa Carr a fighting chance in her first ever County Gala. Carr swam out of her skin and with a pb of 38.97 led her team home in first place and with only three teams beating them from the second heat made the final. In the quartets first ever final Seward swam to form with Snape beating her heat time to another pb of 51.52, Pugh doing the same with a 38.02 for the 50m fly leg and Tessa again improving with 38.37 for the freestyle leg. Their time in the final was 2:52.72 and only just missed out on a medal placing by 0,5 of a second but still felt elated they had done themselves and the club proud.
Head Coach stated "The future looks promising with a strong group of younger swimmers achieving personal bests in many of their races. Pershore arelooking for any new swimmers particularly those who may wish to take the sport up again and should ring their secretary on 07968429112.
At the Midland Age Group Championships recently club member 13 year old Severin Naraine came 9th in the 100m Backstroke with an excellent time of 1 min 10.52 secs.