22 Oct 2012

Tazmin flies Vale flag.

In the annual National County Swimming Championships comprising thirty nine counties together with 3 teams from Scotland and two from Wales staged at Sheffield's International Ponds Forge pool, Pershore's Tazmin Pugh was the only swimmer from clubs in the Vale to fly the flag when invited to join the County of Hereford and Worcester team as part of their four strong 12/13 age group. With the logistics of travel and accomodation superbly organised by the County Association a local club did have the honour of supplying one of the managers for the weekend being Jillian Biddle from the Evesham club.

Tazmin still aged twelve had a tough ask being invited to tackle the herculean task of swimming against some of the very best swimmers in Great Britain in both the individual 100m Fly and 100m Back as well as the 4 x 50m Medley Relay events. Add to this the fact that most swimmers in her age group were 13 years of age and could be nearly 14 months older than the Pershore based swimmer one start's to appreciate the pressure she and her 12 yr old team mates were under.

Tazmin was joined by five members of the City of Worcester Swimming Club to fight it out from amongst 19 other counties in division two with 16 year old Alice O'Toole recording a 2nd (in the 100m Free) and a 9th(100m Back); 17 yr old Tabitha Monkhouse 5th (100m Fly) and 5th(100m Breast); 15 yr old James Marsh 5th (1200m Breast); 15 yr old Megan Willets 13th (100m Back) and Lydia Tainty a valuable member of the relay team.

Tazmin's own 12/13 age group was made up of Lucy Clayton (also Worcs SC) who had unenviable task of being first up in the individual events but performed superbly in the 100m Breaststroke (1:19.64) to record a 12th place finish. Lucy was followed by Poppy McGourlay (Redditch SC) swimming to a great 3rd place in a new short course personal best (pb) in the 100m Freestyle (1:01.12). They were joined in the Medley Relay by 13 yr old Jade Alcock from City of Hereford SC anchoring the foursome with freestyle leg of 27.99. Tazmin handed over a lead from her lead off backstroke leg with a new 50m pb of 31.10 and with Lucy's 36.90 (breaststroke) and Poppy's 31.70 (fly) her team mates all performed supremely well to finish in a fantastic 3rd place and 18pts towards the county's total with a combined time of 2:07.69 just 3 seconds behind the triumphant Cambridgeshire team.

Tazmin followed this performance with two of her own individual events to record a 4th place finish again from nineteen from the two heats in the 100m Backstroke with a time of 1:08.15 and became the fastest 12 yr olds from all 39 county teams from both division 1 & 2 and the 14thfastest of all time from end of year rankings.

In the 100m Fly Tazmin went even better recording a 2ndplace with a pb and National Qualifying time for next July's National Age Group Championships of 1:07.14 and again being the quickest from both divisions all bar Holly Hibbott (Lancashire) who was six times National Age Group Champion from July. Tazmin remains at the top of the UK end of year rankings with her time being the 10th fastest of all time from the 5 million records kept by the ASA. Tazmin once again owes a bit vote of thanks to her supporters especially the Joanna Brown Trust.

The County will be heartened by these results as Tazmin and two of her 12yr team mates will be eligible for selection in the same category again next year and were by far the best results for the 12/13 age group for the County of Hereford & Worcs for Tazmin, Poppy and Jade since 2004 with Lucy only 0.14 seconds away from doing the same.

The County will also be cheered by the overall results in taking the runners up position coming 2nd on 428 pts behind one of the strong Wales teams. In so doing they beat their neighbours of Gloucestershire (389), Warwickshire (372), Shropshire (243) and Northants (197) with Staffordshire not fairing much better lying 18thin div 1 with just 213 pts and means the County gain a long awaited promotion to the Premier division.

 


Ian Pugh

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