Yorkshire Swimming Championships 2014
John Charles Centre, Leeds
Saturdays and Sundays of 15th/16th and 22nd/23rd February 2014
The spring 2014 Yorkshire championships kicked off at the John Charles pool in Leeds. The events where swum over two weekends and gave Kingston upon Hull swimmers the chance to test themselves against the best in Yorkshire.
National Squad
A remarkable string of performances from 14 year old Bailey Hairsine saw in him reach finals in every one of the 10 events he competed in. And his successes didn’t end there; walking away as Yorkshire Champion in three disciplines, the 200m butterfly, 1500m and 400m frontcrawl. He then went on to gain silver medals for the 400m IM and 200m breaststroke, and round off proceedings taking bronze medals in the 200m and 100m backstroke races.
16 year old Dervla Curran competed in four events, reaching finals in all and was crowned champion for the 200m IM, narrowly missing out on a National qualifying time by 0.03 seconds. She then went on to take silver for the 400m frontcrawl. 14 year old Shannon McGahey competed in no less than nine events, reaching six finals. She claimed a silver medal in the 800m frontcrawl, swimming 9:21.29 seconds, and a bronze for the 400m IM in a personal best time of 5:13.07 seconds.
13 year old Jack Woodcock qualified for eight events and reached fours final, posting several personal best times along the way. 15 year old Hannah Willingham took part in five races, gaining personal best times and narrowly missing out to two finals. 15 year old Elliot Stephenson returned from a recent injury to compete admirably in five events, and 14 year old Abigail Stringer posted some personal best times in her four races. 15 year old Abigail Malton and 14 year old Will Costello both competed in two races each, and improved upon their previous best times.
Junior A Squad
Lewis Collins, aged 13, also had a great Yorkshire gala, knocking off a massive 18.01 seconds off his 400M freestyle. He also improved his life time best times in the 200m IM, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle and 200m backstroke. 12 year old Jake Conlon had a great first weekend, gaining two pb’s and two top ten’s in the 200m and 400m freestyle, finishing 8th and 10th with both being long course pb’s. He also gained a 2 second long course pb on the 200m backstroke and a massive 14 second long course pb on his 200m breaststroke rounded off a good gala.
Alex Stringer, 13, took 11 seconds off her 400m IM time, gaining her an NER time in this event. Making it to two finals first was the 200m fly where she was placed 10th in the heat. She also improved her time, placing her in the final to finish 9th place. 100m breaststroke saw another pb of just over a 1second and finished in 6th place this is her highest ever Yorkshire final placing. Aleah Ross came in 10th place in the 200m free.
14 year old Daisy Hill swam in three events in Leeds’ Yorkshires; in her 400m freestyle she got a staggering 4.53.93 PB. Alexandra Stringer, aged 13, swam in the 200im gaining a 1.5 second pb. Emma Newmarch, 14, swam at her first Yorkshires and managed a small pb in 400 m free, and Aleah Ross, 12, came 6th place in the 100m free.
Junior B Squad
Junior B squad had swimmers representing the club at the Yorkshire swimming championship held at held over the weekends of 15th/16th and 22nd/23rd of February.
11 year old Evie Lees had 5 races. She put in some great swims and finished in the top ten swimmers from the across the whole of Yorkshire in all 5 events for her age group. Evie gained a new personal best to place 9th in the 200m breaststroke. There was a 6th place finish and a new personal best in the 200m individual medley. Evie’s 400m freestyle gained her the 4th place spot. In the 100m breaststroke she had a great swim of 1.27.4 seconds, and this was a new personal best and a NER qualifying time. In the 100m freestyle Evie again produced a great swim to knock 2 seconds of her time, narrowly missing a second NER qualifying time, but the bronze medal finish put a big smile on Evie’s face.
11 year old Megan Gray had a great gala, having only turned 11 last month it was a great achievement to have gained qualifying times in 8 events. Megan swam her way to new personal best times in the 200m individual medley, 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke. The 100m freestyle was a highly competitive event, but Megan swam her way to a fantastic new personal best time of 1.10.00 second. She just missed out of the final in the 200m freestyle with a time of 2.34 seconds. Megan’s top swim came in the 400m individual medley, with a massive 10 second personal best swim saw her place in the top 10 to gain her first Yorkshire champions pendant.
12 year old Callum Wright swam a new personal best time in the 100m freestyle. Callum had a great swim in the 400m freestyle, knocking a fantastic 8 seconds off his previous time to finish in a time of 5.18 seconds.
Junior C Squad
Junior C had just 1 representative at the Yorkshire championships so far this year. Ryan Porter competed in the 400m frontcrawl event and swum a whopping 13 second pb.
