Pershore Swimmers win more medals at Midlands
13 Jun 2011
Pershore Swimmers win more medals at Midlands Championships.
At the second and final weekend of the Midland Age Group Championships four swimmers were involved swimming in Coventry's 50m (Long Course) Olympic Pool with Tazmin Pugh and Tyler McLean hoping to build on their two gold medals from the previous weekend.
First off the mark was 10 year old McLean in the heats of the 200m breaststroke comfortably making his way through to the finals with 3:19.44, and although going nearly five seconds quicker from the eight finalists had to settle for silver in one of the most exciting finishes of the day with five hundredths splitting 1st and 2nd places.
Tazmin Pugh (11) competed in six races over the last weekend with her first being the 200m backstroke heats where a disappointing time only just saw her scrapping into the finals but where she came back well to take bronze medal in a new long course time of pb of 2:41.33. Meanwhile club mate Alison Seward competing in the same event and set a new pb when winning her own heat in 2:49.05. though not quick enough to make the finals.
In the boys 200m backstroke the Pershore pairing of McLean and Joseph Doyle (10) set new long course pb's but not enough to make the finals with Doyle recording 2.59.57 and McLean 3.12.80.
In the girl's 100m butterfly event only 1.5 seconds separated the top six swimmers and though Pugh was in the mix she had to settle for 6th place though recording a great new long course time of 1.15.68 again an agonizing 0.13 outside the National Champs Qualifying time. A disappointing 800m free time marked the prelude to what was to be a better second day for Pugh.
In Pugh's first race on the last day in the 200m Individual Medley (IM) she new she would have a job making the final entering the event with the 12th quickest time. A new pb of 2:46.48, however, secured her a motivational 6th place for the top eight final. where going even better with 2:45.55 found her finishing in brilliantly fought bronze position again. Yet another bronze came Pugh's way in the 100m free event with 1:07.08 and once again only 0.67 outside the National time (NQT). This pushed Pugh's medal tally for the Championships up to an impressive one gold and three bronze. An 8th place in her final event of the 400m free saw another pb of 5:04.55 this time 3 seconds away from NQT and helped her climb up the top girl competition table eventually finishing 7th from the 69 competitors in her age group who had successfully achieved the difficult qualifying standard for this year's Championships.
Also competing on the second day found McLean doing a spectacular new pb in the 200m IM with 2:59.82 qualifying with the 2nd quickest time in what became one of the most exciting finals of the day with McLean using his breaststroke skills to fight back from 5th place after the fly and backstroke legs to start the freestyle leg in 2nd place which he held until only 20m to go with the lanes either side of him capturing the fingertip finish to push him into 4th place. Ten year old McLean finished his first Midlands Champs with a brilliant gold and silver medal 9th in the top boy compeition and more importantly with a great future to come so much so he has already been awarded a scholarship for a swimming academy at a sports college in North Shropshire for which the club wish him all the best in the years to come. PHOTO