The East Region Open Water Swimming Championships took place at Whittlingham Park, Norwich on Sunday 9th July.
25 West Norfolk swimming club swimmers, who regularly train open water swimming at Premier Water skiing club, Pentney lakes, competed – the club’s biggest team to date.
The annual event sees swimmers swimming distances of 1k, 2k, 3k and 5k and also incorporates the Norfolk County Championships, as well as serving as a qualification event for the national championships at Thryburgh Lakes, Rotherham which this year take place on Sunday 29th July.
14 year old Jamie Wilson 14 years secured a spot at nationals in the 3 KM distance. Wilson came second in the region, just beaten by the winner by a mere .15 of a second, but still secured 1st in the County, winning the Norfolk Men’s Open 3KM Trophy.
Elsewhere in the 3KM race, Oliver Norris came 4th in the county and 12th in the region in the Boys’ 14 Years’ category, whilst Ruby Jackson was 3rd in the county and 17th in the region for the girls.
Kye Harrington was 2nd in the county and 6th in region amongst the 15 year old boys. For the girls, Poppy Peebles came 3rd in the county and 12th in the region, behind Wiktoria Marcinek who placed first in the county, winning the Norfolk Women’s Open trophy and 3rd in the region – the latter placing making her West Norfolk’s second national qualifier.
In a heroic effort, the 3KM was only Wilson’s first swim of theday, as he later went on to swim the 5KM distance, coming in 1st in both the county and region – securing the Norfolk Men’s Open 5KM trophy in the process.
Esmie Kidman qualified for the national championships in the 5KM event for the 17/18 year old girls finishing 2nd in the region, first in the county and capturing the Norfolk Women’s Open trophy for the distance.
The 5KM also saw Olivia Skittrell and Zoe Wilson place 1st and 2nd in Norfolk amongst the 16 year old girls (6th and 7th place in the region) – whilst Oscar Smithee was 1st in Norfolk and 7th in the region amongst the boys.
Alex Wilson was second in the county and sixth in the region in the Boys’ 17/18 years age category.
The 2KM saw Olivia Bradford; Milly Johnson and Maia Khalil secure first place in the county in the Girl’s 12 years; 13 years and 14 years categories respectively.
Erin Lovelock was second place in the county amongst the 13 year olds, whilst Faith Turner placed fourth.
For the boys, Alexander Pattison, was third in the County and eleventh in the region in the thirteen years age group.
Two of West Norfolk’s masters swimmers also got involved in the 2KM race with Lucy Chadderton and Hayley Turner both placing first in the region in their respective age categories.
Finally, the 1KM event for open water novices saw West Norfolk’s Polly Anderson; Daisy Covell; David Roczniak; Erin Woodrow and Nathan Yeaman all take first place on their respective categories – with Woodrow and Yeaman also securing the Norfolk Men’s and Women’s Open titles and placing first in the region.
Nellie Chadderton followed Anderson home in the 12 year old girls category to secure a county second place.
