Pershore swimmers excel in league debut.
14 Feb 2012
Pershore swimmers excel in league debut.
Pershore Swimming Club having entered the Midland PGL League for the first time in over five years could not have asked for a better start. Coming up against Redditch, Wyre Forest and Cheltenham it was clear it would be a hard battle for the points but in the end it became Redditch and Pershore vying for 1st place. The task was made more difficult with league rules disallowing swimmers with Midland District times and having a system whereby if a swimmer goes faster than the stipulated times then zero pts would be scored for that race the result being some of the club's swimmers competing in age group at least one year older than their own.
It became obvious early on in the contest that many of Pershore's swimmers were indeed too fast and were recording an increasing number of 'speeding tickets' with the inevitable mixed blessing that although they knew they were faster in many swims than the opposition they were unfortunately discounted from recording any points, even though it was heartening to see two of Pershore's nine year olds getting speeding tickets when winning races in the age group above their own.
1st places were recorded by Lizzie Vizard (13yr & 14yr fly); Makenzie Christys (11& under breaststroke); Isobel Cumming (9 yr free); James Thomas (9yr free); Chris Vizard (10/u fly & also the 10/u breast)); Sam Doyle (10/u free); Callum Sanderson (12/u free); Joseph Doyle (12/u fly); Luke Betteridge (9yr fly). Together with the 8 relay 1st place finishes Pershore's total of wins came to 18 and with only 1 disqualification, being the least of all the clubs competing, proved their excellence.
A highlight in the relays was when both the boys and 13 & 14 4 x 1 Medley Relays teams won with victories also going to the boys 12/u & boys11/u & boys 9yr 4 x 1 Medley teams; also the girls 10/u free and boys 12/u free. There was an exciting finish in the boys 'cannon' in the penultimate race two in each age group going for the 10 x 1 with the Pershore club being a length ahead at one point but Redditch coming back at the end but leaving just too much for their anchor legs. As can be seen by the 1st place wins the boys in particular had a better second half of the meet determined to help their club fight back to within two points of the eventual winners Redditch. The final results being Redditch 150 (with 5 ST); Pershore 148 (with10 ST); Wyre Forest 125 (with 6 ST); Cheltenham 123 (1 ST).
Meanwhile on the first day of this year's Hereford and Worcester County Championships the Pershore Club sported two qualifiers for the long distance 800m freestyle event both in the 12 year old age group being Drew Jones and Tazmin Pugh. In his heat Drew set off strongly and consolidated good form recording consistent 1:22.00 100m splits to record a new personal best (pb) of 11:04.40 being over 30 seconds quicker than his qualifying entry time.
Pugh had seen all the other twelve year old girls swim in the previous heats and knew she would have a job on her hands beating a excellent time a Wyre Forest swimmer had set of 9.57.24 Pugh's previous best being 9:58.61. Once again a confident first few lengths set the tone of the whole 32 lengths consistently recording 1.14.50 every 100m and eventually finishing with a County title winning performance of 9:49.34 and her first gold medal of this year's championships adding to last years 800m title. Even though only recently having turned 12 already Pugh's time puts her at the top of the UK's end of year rankings for her age group.
The County Championship's other long distance event, the 1500m freestyle is being swum this coming Sunday 12th February and will also be at the Hereford pool when Drew will be joined by his brother Angus and once again Tazmin now 12 again hoping to repeat last year's 11 year age group title success.
Ian