10 Oct 2010

Pershore's Swimmers punch above their weight.

 

In a three day long gala Worcester Swimming Club staged recently eleven swimmers from Pershore S.C. took on seventeen clubs two, three four times their size some boasting National Swimmers galore.  This was a task not even considered possible beforehand until the leader board appeared following the first session on Friday evening.

 

This followed swims by the quartet of ten year olds Jack Betteridge and Tazmin Pugh with Joseph Doyle (11) and Harry Sykes (12).   In the 400m freestyle Pugh was supremely victorious with a new personal best (pb) time of 5:09.13 building on a seven second record from the Gloucester meet a few weeks before.  This was the first of several Midland Qualifying times (MQT) over the weekend achieved seven months ahead of schedule to be competed for in June next year and also meant she rose to 1^st ranked 10 year old in the UK and in fact became the tenth quickest for a ten year old girl of all time.  Betteridge and Doyle came 5^th in each of their races with 6:05.35 and 5:57.24 respectively, whilst Sykes swam his way to a County Qualifying time ( County QT) of 6:04.99.

 

On Saturday Pugh gained her second MQT with 2:48.30 in the 200m IM pushing her up to 2^nd in the UK for the end of year rankings.  She repeated the gold medal experience in the 50m fly event gaining top position from the heats and to eventually take victory with 34.89 (1^st in the UK) 200m Freestyle event with 2:29.93 (1^st in the UK). There was also a pb in the 100m breaststroke of 1:39.19.   Meanwhile Betteridge was swimming the 50m fly qualifying in 6^th place for the final eventually finishing 6^th with 43.79.  Doyle swam 42.53 and Sykes also made the final gaining the silver medal with 35.44. 

 

The boys were joined by Pershore's rising star Tyler Mclean, only just having celebrated his 10^th birthday who swam 44.78 himself for the 50m fly.   In the girls 100m back Elizabeth Vizard (12) set a new pb with 1:27.14 whilst Doyle for the boys swam a County QT with 1:28.20.  In the boys 200m Free Betteridge finished with 2:59.63, Sykes 2:33.71 and Mclean went well inside the County QT with 2:51.29.

 

Mclean and Doyle both went on to CQT's in the 50m backstroke with 42.68 and 40.22 whilst Betteridge and Sykes swam  44.79 and 36.51.   For the girls Alison Seward (11) and Ashley Gribble (13) joined the fray in the 50m backstroke with Seward gaining a County QT to be swum in March with 39.96 and Gribble 41.20 with Vizard going 41.21.

 

During the afternnon session ten year old Mclean won the 100m Breaststroke with a great time of  1:36.87 bringing him up to 12^th in the UK whilst Sykes recorded 1:27.12. For the girls Vizard (11) continued her busy weekend with 1:43.29 whilst Pugh swam a pb with 1:39.19 coming in 4^th in her weakest stroke.

 

Sunday started with a win for Pugh in the grueling 200m butterfly with a new pb of 3:05.53, and with the boys with Mclean in the 50m Breast qualifying for the final in first place where he established his supremacy with another win in a superb time of 43.05, whilst in the same event for twelve year olds Sykes secured 2^nd place in the finals with his 38.61.   For the girls Pugh surprisingly made the finals in the 50m breaststroke and actually swam a life time best in a close fought finals recording 43.84 and taking bronze.    In the 11/12 age groups Vizard and Laura Snape  swam 45.61; 49.34 and 45.72 and in the 13/14 age Cordiner recorded 45.72.

 

In the 100m Freestyle Mclean swam a pb with 1:19.40 whilst Sykes set 1.09.04 in swimming to a bronze medal position.  Mclean swam 100m breaststroke for the first time in competition and finished in silver medal position with 1:36.87, whilst for Sykes another bronze came his way with a pb time of 1:27.12 keep the points coming in for the club.  Pugh added another 3 pts with a 4^th in her 100m Breaststroke followed by the maximum six points from wins in the 200m Fly (3:05.53) and the 100m Fly (1:24.90) with five silver medal points in the 100m Freestyle in 1:10.00 (MQT) and four bronze medal points from the 200m Breaststroke 3:25.37. 

 

In the 200m backstroke Seward returned to top form recording 2:55.66 which is now only 6 seconds short of a MQT but certainly well within the County time.

 

Tazmin Pugh finished her weekend with six gold medals, one silver and two bronze a host of pb's and a further four MQT's.   Even though Pugh was not allowed to compete in four of her best events (being the 50m free and all the three backstroke events) because she was 'too fast' where she may have expected to add a further 24pts she still managed to accumulate 52pts gaining 4^th Top Girl position from all age groups present, Megan Willetts from Halesowen club won with 58pts.   

 

Harry Sykes himself finished with 43 pts in 7^th Top Boy position taking one gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze whilst Tyler Mclean took home 3 gold and 1 silver all his County times and one Midland District time.  Together with the above nine gold, six silver and five bronze medals Doyle and Betteridge gained more valuable points with their own top six placed finishes making a total of 133 pts and gaining the prestigious 3rd top visiting club beating fourteen other clubs some benefiting from ten times the pool time Pershore have.  Winners were Halesowen who had 48 swimmers competing and 2^nd were the side from the City of Stoke-on-Trent 'Biddulph'.   The local club achieved over forty pb's, twenty nine County Qualifying Times and five Midland Qualifying Times from Pershore's ten swimmers.

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