Pershore Swimming Club members in Fine Form.
15 Jan 2010
Pershore Swimming Club members in Fine Form.
Seven members from Pershore Swimming Club travelled to Wolverhampton at the weekend to take part in the annual Stourbridge Crystal Open Meet, with the aim of gaining or consolidating their County Championships qualifying times.
In the 50m freestyle Joseph Doyle (age 10), Drew Jones (10) and Jack Betteridge (9) set two pb's with Jones swimming 37.67 a County Qualifying (CQ) time, Betteridge 39.71 and Doyle recording 38.09 (CQ). This success was continued in the 100m Individual Medley (IM) where Jones improved on his pb by over 3 sec with 1.35.15 (CQ) enjoying an exciting contest with Doyle just behind on 1.35.26 (CQ) whilst the younger Betteridge improved on his previous pb by an incredible 5 secs with 1.40.89. In the 50m back Doyle made another 1 sec improvement with 42.96 (CQ) whilst in the 50m breaststroke Jones swam 50.79 whilst Betteridge recorded 56.71.
Pershore's 11 yr old Independent School's Champion Harry Sykes had a meet to remember with pb's being recorded in nearly all of his events. In the 50m backstroke Harry Sykes broke his pb with 39.77 whilst in the 200m breaststroke Sykes recorded a 19 sec improvement with 3min21.92 (CQ) taking the first place in his age group. Sykes repeated this stunning performance again in the 50m breast Sykes taking the age group title with a 2 sec pb of 42.91 (CQ). Sykes continued his excellent form recording 38.89 in the 50m butterfly another 1 sec improvement on his pb swimming 34.17 in the 50m freestyle. His last event the 200m free Sykes swam to a new 9 sec pb with 2.45.63.
For the girls 12 year old Ashley Gribble swam 38.89 in the 50m fly whilst in the 50m free recorded a pb with 33.92 (CQ), yet another new pb. She concluded her swims with 41.09 in the 50m back. This left Pershore's ten year old pairing of Tazmin Pugh and Alison Seward to swim. In the 50m free Seward set a new pb with 38.00 with 43.10 in the 50m back and 1.38.94 in the 100m IM.
In Pugh's first event the 50m free she was swimming in the ten year old group for the first time her birthday being the very same day and against older competition she set out strong, steadily pulling ahead eventually winning convincingly with a new pb of 33.19 in so doing taking the coveted crystal goblet for overall champion. Her second event the 50m fly was a repeat performance with yet another pb of 38.58 a first place and another winner's crystal goblet.
Pugh had to settle for the 3rd place trophy in the 100m IM but still swam a great new pb with 1m 25.37 and although swimming into the lead on the fly and backstroke lengths was overtaken by breaststroke specialist, the best in the West Midlands, on the third leg by Caitlin Britt of Redditch who just managed to hold off Pugh's renewed attack on the final length of freestyle. In one of Pugh's favourite events the 50m back she had to settle for a 2nd place trophy but once again a new pb of 38.34 was in the words of Pershore's head coach Tom Naughton "her best swim of the day".