A team of twelve swimmers from West Norfolk Swimming Club travelled to Whitlingham Country Park on the outskirts of Norwich for the East Region Open Water Championships on Sunday 10th July.
The event saw regional and county titles handed out across 2KM; 3KM and 5KM distances – with a 1KM novice event also held for those giving open water swimming a try for the first time.
National qualifying spots were also on offer with the first three swimmers in the region for each age group’s specified distance earning a place at the National Championships being held at Thryburgh Country Park in Rotherham on Wednesday 10th August.
Qualifying spots were available for twelve and thirteen year olds in the 2KM race; for fourteen and fifteen year olds in the 3KM and for swimmers aged sixteen and above in the 5KM.
The 2KM race saw West Norfolk’s Jamie Wilson (a dual-registered swimmer with Wisbech SC) ensure he’d be heading to Rotherham by coming home first of anyone in the water, securing the thirteen year’s Norfolk and East Region titles along with his qualifying slot.
In the same race Jamie’s thirteen year old West Norfolk teammate Thomas Arthur Jagger came home in ninth place in his age group for the region and fourth of the swimmers from Norfolk.
The 3KM race saw fourteen year old Wiktoria Marcinek also bag herself a trip to the National Championships, placing second in her age group for the East Region and being the overall fastest finisher of Norfolk based swimmers.
In the boys standings for the same age group, Ben Tennant placed second in Norfolk and seventh in the East Region.
In a packed field of fifteen year old girls, Chloe Bellamy took tenth place in the Region and second place in the county. For the boys, Josh Parker placed first in Norfolk and eleventh in the region
The 5KM race saw sixteen year old Esmie Kidman put in a dominant performance to take top honours for both region and county – making her the third West Norfolk swimmer heading to the National Championships this summer.
Dan Grimmer took first place in Norfolk amongst the sixteen year old boys, ahead of teammate Nedas Tkacenko, with the pair placing seventh and eighth in the East Region standings.
Masters swimmer Rafal Marcinek came home fourth in the region in the 40 – 49 years category, placing first in Norfolk.
In the 1KM novice event, West Norfolk had two entrants, with Maia Khalil placing first in Norfolk and eleventh in the region amongst the thirteen year olds and Poppy Peebles taking county gold and a fourth place finish in the region of the fourteen year olds.
Thanks go to coach Cheryl Rose for her continued dedication to growing the club’s open water activities, preparing the swimmers with regular training sessions at Leziate Lake each Saturday.
