The second and final weekend of the Spring Yorkshire Championships 2011 was held at the Ponds Forge International Pool recently. The final weekends events were all long course (50m) sprints along with the 200m medley and freestyle relays events.

Regional Development

Kingston upon Hull’s Regional Development swimming squad was represented at the 2011 Yorkshire Sprint and Team Championship at Sheffield, by James Rodmell, Adam Winder, Dale Booth and Tom Clarke. Having not swam at Sheffield for 6 Years, Adam Winder won his heat in the men’s open 50m butterfly event and went on to take a gold medal in the final with a time of 26.77, beating a whole host of top swimmers from the Yorkshire region. He then went on to take a well deserved 2nd in the 50m front crawl in a time of 24.86.

Also competing in the men’s 50 Fly was James Rodmell who narrowly missed out making the finals in a hard fought race and clocked a time of 28.98. Tom Clarke (18) having set fast times in the heats, was rewarded for his effort’s by making both finals of the 50m backstroke and 50m breaststroke events finishing 9th and 7th respectively.

Team mate Dale Booth competing in the 16-year age group, competed in the 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly, and gained valuable experience making the final in the 50m butterfly and swum a time of 28.71. In the open boys team events the Hull boys were up against the likes of Sheffield, Leeds and a whole host of the regions top clubs, with many of the clubs having international swimmers on show it was always going to be a tough ask for the boys. The team of Adam Winder, James Rodmell, Tom Clarke and Aaron Tomasz all excelled themselves. The lads made the finals in both the medley and free relays, they finished 10th in the medley relay and a very creditable 5th place in the free relay less than a second outside the medals.

Age 1 Squad

11 year old Shannon McGahey proved what hard work can achieve by making all 3 of her finals to win top 11 year old girls in the Yorkshire Region and a £50 voucher. Shannon came 10th in the heats and finishing 8th in the final of the 50m back. In the Fly she gained a personal best to make the final whilst knocking more time off to finish 5th place. Her best swim of the day came in the free where she swum a 3 second best time. She then went on to knock more time off in the final to claim the silver medal.

10 year old Darcy Hambly had qualified for 2 races, the 50 free and 50 back. She gained personal best time’s in both of her races, finishing 14th in the back and being a mere 100th of seconds from the top 10. To add to a great weekend for Darcey, she has now gained 6 North East Region Times over the last months galas.

10 year old Jack Woodcock had also qualified for the back and free managing to swim PB’s in both events. He swam 36.16 in the free, a mere second from the top swimmers.

11 year old Leoni Bull had qualified for the 50 back where she had a great swim managing a 1.5 second PB to achieve her highest finish at a Yorkshire race yet.

11 year old Ben Chapman had qualified for the 50 back and 50 free. he had good swims in both to get his top finish in the 50 back where he placed 14th

11 year old Bailey Hairsine had qualified for all 4 races having good swims in the back and free being just outside the top 10 in the free, placing him 12th. In the breast, he qualified in 10th and finished 9th in the final. His best race being the 50 fly where he qualified 4th, then knocked time off in the final swimming it in a time of 35.27 to claim the bronze medal.

12 year Hannah Willingham had qualified for the 50 breast where she put in a good strong swim. Emily Bailey had a great weekend qualifying for 3 finals where in the fly she got a PB of 34.01 to claim the 10th place pendant. In the 50 free she knocked time off from heat to final to come 9th and her best race came in her favourite stroke of back, where she swam her way to a PB to qualify for the finals. She then knocked more time off to swim it in a time of 33.62 claiming the silver medal.

12-year-old Daniel Stone had qualified for the 50 fly and 50 back where he put in great swims in both events, swimming the back in a time of 36.77.

13 year old Aram Sharp had a great weekend where he had 3 sprint races. He managed PB’s in all his events where in the fly he swam a time of 32.98, the back in a time of 35.48 and his best swim came in the 50 free where he got a PB to qualify in 9th. He then rose to the challenge by putting in a fantastic swim to knock another second off swimming in a time of 28.35 to claim 4th place being a mere 0.09 seconds of the top 3. Arams improvement has been incredible and his first ever Yorkshire final was well deserved.

Age 1 also swimmers took part in the team sprints on the Sunday, which consisted of 2 events being the 200m IM and 200m free. Darcey was in the girls 9/10 team where they all put in good swims in both events to have top 20 finishes. Jack was in the boys 9/10 team where they managed to qualify for the free final in 9th and all the boys rose to the challenge managing to finish in 6th place.

In the girls 11/12 team were Hannah Willingham, Chloe Hamilton, Shannon McGahey and Emily Bailey. They managed 14th in the IM out of 32 teams and they then qualified for the free final claiming 10th place. The boy’s 11/12 team of Bailey Hairsine, Daniel Stone, Nathan Greenwood and Jack Riley was really proud of them as most of them had been suffering from injury or illness but managed to qualify for both finals coming 9th in the IM and 7th in the free.

Aram Sharp took part in the 13/14 year old teams where they qualified for the I.M final in 8th then swam their way to a 6th place finish.

Age 2 Squad

Swimming at the Yorkshires for Age 2 Squad were Aleah Ross, Hollie Verity, Maddie Tait, Lewis Collins, Samuel Bailey and Luke Taylor. The Saturday was all about the sprint events where first up was Samuel Bailey swimming in the 9yrs 50m back heats. Samuel finished in a fantastic 4th position qualifying for the finals where he then improved his heats time and gained a new PB time of 42:05, finishing in a marvellous bronze medal position. Lewis Collins and Luke Taylor swam in the 10yrs heats both finishing with excellent PB times.

Samuel Bailey also swam in the 3 other 9yrs events where he produced fantastic swims achieving PB’s in 50m Fly, 50m Breast and 50m Free. Hollie Verity and Aleah Ross swam in the 50m Free, 50m Back and 50m Fly both producing great swims in the heats with Hollie achieving PB’s in the free and back. Aleah also swam in the 50m Breast going very close to her PB. On the Sunday it was the relay events with the Boys Team of Jack Woodcock (Age 1 Squad), Luke Taylor, Samuel Bailey and Lewis Collins swimming in the 200m free. In the heats the team finished in 10th position qualifying for the finals in a time of 2:29. In a very strong final the boys moved up from 10th to finish in a fantastic 6th place in a great time of 2:27.12 with all the boys improving on their heat split times.

The Girls team of Darcey Hambly (Age 1 Squad), Aleah Ross, Maddie Tait and Hollie Verity swam in the 200m IM and the 200m free. First up was the heats of the 200m IM where Maddie Tait led the girls out with backstroke in a PB time of 46:22. Next was Aleah Ross with breast close to her PB time of 48:48. Hollie Verity went next in the fly and was close to her best time of 45:98 and Darcey Hambly brought the team home with free in a time of 35:04. In the 200m free heats the girls put in a tremendous performance with a swim time of 2:34.60. Leading the team out was Darcey Hambly (35:02) followed by Aleah Ross (37:86) third up was Maddie Tait (40:18) and bringing the team home was Hollie Verity (40:12).

Swim 21 Swimmers

Swimming for their home club of Bridlington but who swim for Kingston under the swim 21 scheme where 11 year old Tom King and Yasmin Brown. Tom had a fantastic weekend he managed to swim PB’s in most of his events and qualified for all 4 finals, in the 50m breast he came 10th while on the back he managed 9th overall. Tom managed to knock time off from heat to final in the fly claiming himself the gold medal. Tom had some drama on the 50 free when his goggles broke just before he got on the block. Shannon lent Tom hers just in time, and he went on to knock time off from his heat to final to claim the gold medal in a time of 31.02. To finish off a great weekend for Tom he now has 6-licensed time for the N.E.R’s. Yasmin Swam in the 50 back and 50 free, her best race coming on the free where she qualified for the final in 10th but knocked time off from heat to final and took the 7th place pendant in a time of 31.30.