The top swimmers from Age 1 took part in the Derventio Excel Long Course Open Meet held at Ponds Forge Sheffield on April 2nd & 3rd, which had competitors from as far away as Camden.

Swimming for the 11 year old boys were Bailey Hairsine and Tom King, where they managed 7 medals between them. Bailey took the bronze in the 400 I.m with an impressive swim, and the boys battled it out in the 100 fly with Bailey taking the bronze and Tom the silver with a new PB time of 1.17.60. Tom took the bronze medal in the 200m I.M with bailey having his best finish claiming the silver medal in the 200m fly. Not to be outdone, Tom took the silver medal in the 100m free where he was aiming for a N.E.R time which he gained in a PB time of 1.08.45. Tom’s best finish came where he swam his way to the gold medal in the 50m fly with a new PB.

13-year-old Will Maddrell had a great weekend swimming his way to PB’s in 3 of his races. He got a PB in the 200m I.M to have a top 20 finish. In the 400m I.M he knocked 6 seconds off his PB to finish just outside the top 10 in 12th place swimming in a time of 4.36.82. Will’s best finish came in the 100m Fly where his PB time of 1.09.28 claimed him 4th place.

10 year old Darcey Hambly and 11 year old Shannon Mcgahey were representing the girls and not to be out done by the boys, they matched the boys 7 medals managing to claim 7 medals between them. Darcey had 4 races in all in the 200m free Darcey got a new PB time of 2.29.38, In the 100m free Darcey swam her way to the bronze medal and a new PB, Darcey’s best finish came in the 100m back where a superb swim in a new time of 1.28.45 claimed her the silver medal.

Shannon swam in 6 races managing medals in 5 of them, In the 100m free Shannon managed a top 5 finish claiming the 5th place spot, She took bronze in the 100m Fly. Shannon then went on to claim 4 gold medals, she swam her way to gold in the 200m free, in the 400m free she got a new PB to claim her second gold. In the 400m I.M her efforts paid off with a 3 second PB and a gold medal. Shannon’s best swim came in the 200m fly where all that training paid off and her 4 second PB not only got her the gold medal but a national qualifying time.

12 year old Emily Bailey had a great weekend managing to swim her way to 6 PB’s over the weekend, In the 100m free Emily got a PB and new time of 1.07.76 and in the 200m free manage a great 4 second PB in a time of 2.25.35. Emily kept the PB’s coming knocking 5 seconds off in her 400m free to swim in a new time 5.10.19. In the 100m Back Emily managed a top 10 finish with her PB . Emily’s best finish came in the 200m back where a 5 second PB gained her 9th place in a time of 2.37.84

The Regional squad had 3 swimmers attending, Dale Booth, Tom Clark and James Rodmell. The highlight for 18 year old Tom was the 100m free when he swum a great race to record a new personal best time of 58.07 seconds. Dale Booth improved his 50m-butterfly time for the third consecutive gala recording a time of 28.44 seconds. James Rodmell swimming in the 100m front crawl was just outside his best time.

All swimmers should be proud of their achievements at this level one meet competing with some top swimmers from all over the country.