04 Nov 2009

Pershore Swimmers in Worcester Open Meet.

11 members of Pershore Swimming Club were in fighting spirit in the recent Worcester Club's Open Meet recording 27 personal bests (pb's) between them.

Nine year old Jack Betteridge's achievements from the meet appeared recently but club mate ten year old Joseph Doyle's exploits were equally exciting with pb's and county qualifying times in the 400 free of 6m50.79; the 100m back 1:36.65 ranking him 5th in the County, the 100m free 1:26.60 again now ranked 5th in the County and 50m free 38.29, now having qualified in four events for next March's County Championships.

Ten year old Adam Palin set pb's in the 200 Individual Medley (IM) of 3:52.70; 50m back 52.00; 100m breast 1:57.72; 50m breast 50.75 and in the 50m free 42.01. In his first ever open gala Tyler McClean set a new pb in the 50m freestyle of 43.16.

For the girls Laura Snape from Charlton set new pb's in the 200 breast of 4:02.25 and 41.29 in the 50m free with good swims in the 100m and 50m breaststroke events and the 100m free. Ella Spencer set three pb's in all her events with 53.31 in the 50m breast; 1:33.59 in the 100m free and 41.14 in the 50m free. Katie Sharrat set her pb in the 50m breast with 53.13 and Amy Porter a 1m26.49 in the 100m free also competing in her first ever open meet.

Tazmin Pugh continues to conquer national and regional competition with seven pb's, six gold and one silver medal to add to her collection. Pugh's 1st places were in the 400m free with 5:48.78; 200m IM with 3:08.81; 50m fly heat of 39.28 followed by victory in the final with 39.52; 200m fly in a new pb of 3:23.31; and in gaining passage through to the final of the 50m free a winning time of 34.48. Pugh had not only to win in her age group of 9 year olds but also the 10 years olds, so some girls were as much as 14 months older.

Pugh's best swim of the day came in the 200m backstroke in an all conquering sub 3 minutes of 2:58.04. The 440m free; 200m back, 200m fly & 50m free events were new county competition all time best performances and together with the 50m fly and 200 IM re-establish Pugh as one of the top three ranked in the UK in 17 events including for 50m pools (Long Course) for the end of 2009 from the approximately 10,000 girls in her age group.

Pugh was pleased to finish the weekend at Worcester as 4th top girl out of 120 female competitors with 41pts even though 9 year olds are not allowed to compete in five of the events.

Pugh has already qualified for the County Championships next March in an unprecedented sixteen events and has even recorded several Midland qualification times, often 15-20 seconds quicker than the County qualification times, even with still six months to go.

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