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Rotherham Metro A/B Long Course Meet at Ponds Forge, Sheffield

18th & 19th January 2020

Regional A

There were some fantastic results from this squad of dedicated swimmers!

Two girls Grace Massam and Isabelle Newby swam some of their events for the first-time in a long course pool whilst also securing some great PBs. Isabelle slashed a lot of her events by 8/9 seconds and in the 200m backstroke she scooped a 22 second PB! Jessica Brodie, Liz Hawkard, Libby Tunley, Blanka Wegerska, Sekiera Wiley, Georgina Kitney and Catherine Crees all swam well and secured some fantastic PB’s. Catherine took 12 secs off her 50m Backstroke whilst Libby took 8 secs off her 200IM, Blanka also PB’d in the 200m IM and took 10 secs off, she was awarded an A Grade Bronze medal in the 50m Free & B Grade Bronze medal in the 100m Free.

The Boys were in excellent fine form too, all securing PB’s and again some swimming events long course for the first-time including Toby Curtis, Zachary Hood and Charlie Shimmells. Zach was also awarded B Grade Gold in the 200m Free & B Grade Bronze in the 50m Backstroke. Denis Pociopko scooped 6 PB’s in all his events and was awarded B Grade Silver in the 200m Backstroke. Nikita Jelizarovs was on top form and was awarded B Grade Gold in the 200m IM, A Grade Bronze in the 50m Fly, A Grade Gold in the 100m Fly & 50m Backstroke, he also secured a massive 20 second PB in his 200m Free. Harry Braimbridge’s efforts awarded him with a B Grade Bronze in the 50m Free, B Grade Silver in the 200m Breaststroke and B Grade Gold in the 50m Breaststroke. Isaac Craven took B Grade Bronze in the 200m Breaststroke and secured 4 PB’s. Isaac Blain scooped B Grade Bronze in the 100m Free, B Grade Silver in the 200m Free with a whopping 18 second PB and B Grade Gold in the 50m Fly which he swam for the first-time long course. Owen Garsides was awarded with B Grade Gold in 200m Free & 100m Breaststroke, B Grade Bronze in the 200m Breaststroke & 100m Backstroke along with PB’s in 5 of his 8 events. Mawgan Bainbridge swam well and gained a PB in his 100m Fly along with Josh Adams who took 4 PB’s in all 4 of his races.  Coach Graham Martin “Golden Graham” was awarded poolside with a t-shirt and photo frame from all of his squad to mark the occasion and to celebrate once gain how proud they all are of him, as he is with all of their efforts at this meet.

Junior B

Victoria Sibova ,11, achieved long course PBs in all of her 8 races taking home a silver medal from the 100m fly and 2 bronze medals in the 100m back – securing her summer NER time, and 200m backstroke. Ruby Horsley, 12, managed to achieve seven PBs from seven races. Notable successes included a huge 13 seconds off her 200m IM, 8 seconds taken off her 200m backstroke, a massive 14 seconds off the 200m freestyle and another 3 seconds off her 100m freestyle as well as smaller PBs in 50m free (a B grade time), 100m back and 50m back. Lili-Sue Stone competed in seven races gaining six PBs taking 13 seconds off her 200m back to win a gold medal at B grade. Helin Zirar, 12 , swam her best and achieved a silver medal in the 200m back. Amelia Barrett (10) had an amazing weekend and won the 200IM, 100M Breaststroke, 200M freestyle, 200M Breaststroke, 50M Backstroke & 100M Freestyle and took silver in the 100M Butterfly & 100M Backstroke. Amelia finished the weekend with 7 speeding tickets and PB’s in all 8 events.

Alex McNamara achieved PBs in every race and gained a 10 second PB in his 200m backstroke gaining a long course NER time for himself and a gold medal. He acheived a 5 second PB on his 100m fly and bronze medal and 5 second PB in his 100m back and a long course NER time. He also nailed another gold medal and 2 second PB in his 50m back all at A grade. Pavel Zirar, 10, demonstrated great swimming and took home 2 gold medals, 1 silver, 1 bronze and 2 speeding tickets for exceeding the cut off times at A grade. Jack Hamilton also had a successful weekend achieving PBs in all 8 races and gaining two silver A grade medals in the 50m and 100m free.

Junior C

Hollie Dolan achieved PBs in 6 of her races, winning a bronze medal in the A
grade 50m backstroke, silver medal in B grade 200m IM and gold in the B
grade 100m freestyle.

Myles Higinbotham, 10 achieved personal best times in 7 out of his 8 races over the weekend. He won a silver medal in the 200m freestyle with a 16 second PB, a 9 second PB in the 50m butterfly, a 3 second PB in the 50m backstroke, 6 second PB in the 100m freestyle, 11second pb in 100m breastroke, 4 second pb in the 50m freestyle, 4 second pb in the 200m breaststroke, silver in the 200m backstroke with a 21 second pb 

Ella Keskin competed in the 11 years old category and improved her times in 4 out of 8 races. She took two gold medals in the B grade category for the 200m backstroke and 200m freestyle.

Junior D

For many of the Junior D swimmers it was their first long course gala but it didn’t hold them back, they all swam exceptionally well.

Alfie Carmichael 9, loved his first Rotherham gala! He got two B grade medals – silver in his 200m freestyle and bronze in 100m backstroke. During the weekend he swam 5 Pbs.

Amelie Newby 10, swam 6 PBs. She took 9 sec of 50m free, 8 sec in 100 free, 6 sec 200m free, 12 sec in 100m breast, 5 sec in 50m back and 6 sec of her previous 100m back  PB.

Ben Towse 9, had a really great weekend picking up silver medals in his 50m and 100m backstroke races and bronze medals in both 50m and 100m freestyle. Ben also came in a respectable 5th place in his 100m breaststroke.

Isabelle Callanan 9 and sister Emily 11, stood up to the challenges of their first open gala and together they gained a lot of experiences for the future, enjoyed the weekend and set very good times to build from. Isabelle did awesome in 200m free (4:05.58) and 100m back 2:04.90) when even the long pool didn’t stop her to achieve Pbs, in 50m free she finished in time 51.53s, 50m backstroke 58.45s and 100m freestyle 1:54.48.

Emily did very well when again she achieved Pbs even in her first ever long course in 50m free (49.45s), 100m free (1:45.18), 50m breast (1:01.73), 50m back (52.26s) and 100m back (1:57.81).

Jagoda Potyrala 10, beat her Pb in 100m backstroke finishing in 1:41.21 and taking home silver medal in B category. She also got her Pb in 50m backstroke with time 47.14 and getting B grade silver medal as well.

Oscar Melbourne 9, won bronze medal in 200m freestyle category B with a new Pb of 4.03.31. He also achieved Pb time even in long course for his 100m back with time 2:00.41.

Vivienne Longhorn 9, even she was very nervous from her first long course gala, she fought amazingly well, loved every minute and impressed with her times especially in 50m breast (1:01.13), 200m free (3:46.06) and 100 m back (1:51.46) where she finished in top 10. In 50m free she swam 46.23s and 100m breast in 2:11.52.