Stourbridge Crystal Open - 12th Jan 2014
12 Jan 2014
Pershore swimmers came away with ten medals and produced over 45 personal bests against tough competition at the 2014 Stourbridge Crystal Open held at Wolverhampton. The annual Open is one of the most popular Level 3 meets on the Midland’s circuit, attracting swimmers from several of the big Birmingham clubs including Halesowen, Worcester, Redditch, Bilston, Boldmere and Leamington Spa.
Naomi Marsden (11) grabbed Pershore’s only gold medal, producing another dominant performance in the Girls 11/12 year 50m backstroke winning in a time of 35.54 seconds. Marsden currently tops the age-group rankings in Worcestershire and at several of the backstroke distances and should be one of the favourites for gold at the forthcoming County Championships in March.
Chris Vizard (11) also produced several strong performances in the Boys 11/12 year old category although a gold medal just eluded him. Vizard grabbed silver medals in the 200m breast in 3.28.55 and 200m fly in 3.15.03 and bronze medals in the 200IM (2.54.92), the 200m back (2.56.69) and the 50m fly (37.85).
Patrick Heeks (10) continues to show much progress, bagging two bronze medals in the 9/10 year old age group, producing a good swim in the 50m free with a time of 34.01 and later went on to record 40.10 in the 50m back.
Owen Leeks and Jasmine Franks were the other two Pershore swimmers who managed podium finishes. Leeks (13) produced an excellent time of 1.15.50 in the Boys 13/14 year old 100m backstroke to claim a well-earned bronze, and Franks (9) also secured bronze in the Girls 50m breast in 51.78.
Jack Betteridge (14) narrowly missed out on the medals, beaten into fourth place in both the 100m fly (1.20.49) and 200m breast (3.15.23) in the Boys 13/14 year age group as well as producing Betteridge personal bests in three other events.
Several swimmers also produced a string of personal bests across a number of different events including William Clarke (11), Charlotte Downey (10) and Tamara Marsden (9) and there were also good performances recorded by Josh Sharratt, William Clarke, Hannah Simister, Isobel Cumming, Daisy Tolley, Callum Sanderson, Jamie Saunders, Luke Betteridge, Cameron Leach, Olivia Howard, Leo Rendall-Baker, Macey French, Sophie Thomas and Caitlin Yates.
Tom Naughton, Pershore’s head coach, said: "This is always a tough event as it comes so soon after the Christmas break. It was pleasing to come away with so many personal bests and it would have been nice to have grabbed a few more podiums. However, we secured a few more County Qualifying Times and will have a record number of swimmers competing in March.”
Ends