The Swim England East Region Long Course Championships took place across three weekends throughout late April and early May, with thirty seven West Norfolk swimmers qualifying to compete against the region’s best.
The opening weekend of racing was held at Luton’s Inspire Sports Village from the 19th to the 21st April.
Jamie Wilson was the first member of the Purple Army into the water on Friday 19th, for the 800M Freestyle. A 13-second Personal Best was enough to take third place in his age group and open West Norfolk’s medal account for the championships.
The Women’s 200M Butterfly saw Esmie Kidman set a personal best of her own before Sam Rose repeated the feat in the Men’s 50M Backstroke.
The same event saw Nathan Wells qualify fastest for the final in a time of 27.46 seconds before going on to take the top step of the podium with a season’s best time of 27.18 seconds.
The Women’s 50M Freestyle saw a season’s best from Sarah O’Brien and personal bests from Erin Woodrow and Millie Harris, with the latter qualifying for the final in her age group were she would go on to finish fourth, just nine one hundredths of a second from the podium places.
The Men’s 100M Breaststroke saw four West Norfolk swimmers in action; namely Thomas Baxter, Joshua Jones, Rhys Burrell and Finlay Ryan.
Baxter and Ryan both swam Personal Best times, with Ryan qualifying for the final and going on to score a second place finish and a silver medal.
O’Brien returned to the pool alongside Kristina Sutika-Totlebena and Eloise Collins for the 200M Breastroke. Collins and Sutika-Totlebena both earnt Personal Bests, with Collins making her age group final and going on to place sixth of the eight finalists.
Wilson swam his second PB of the weekend in the 100M Butterfly, contesting the event with Joseph Wells, Robert Addis and Sam Rose, who swam his best time of the season.
Wells and Rose also raced the 100M Freestyle, along with George Stevenson who, like Rose, put in a Personal Best performance.
West Norfolk was represented by Chloe Bellamy and Erin Woodrow in the Women’s 200M Backstroke, which saw Woodrow swim a PB,
The Men’s 400M Individual Medley saw Wilson, Jones and Nathan Wells back in action with West Norfolk Harvey Isle.
Wilson swam yet another Personal Best swim whilst Isle showed up with a season’s best swim of his own.
The 200M Butterfly saw Wilson continue his streak further whilst Daniel Grimmer swam a season’s best. Wilson qualified for the final in his age group, swimming another strong swim to come home fifth.
West Norfolk had their most numerous representation of the championships so far in the 50M Freestyle.
Joseph Wells, Nathan Wells and Sam Rose all returned to action whilst Jake Lammas, Thomas Garnett and Tobias Oglesby all made their first appearances of the weekend.
Rose and Oglesby both swam Personal Best times whilst Nathan Wells qualified for the final where a swim of 25.32 seconds saw him finish in eighth place.
O’Brien, Collins and Pemberley Hornigold all contested the Women’s 100M Breaststroke before Baxter, Jones and Burrell all competed in the Men’s event for the 200 Metre distance across the same strike.
Burrell swam a season’s best time of 2 minutes 44.61 seconds whilst Jones scored a Personal Best with a swim of 2 minutes 43.78 seconds.
Millie Harris swam a new PB of 65.91 seconds to make her way into her age group’s final for the 100M Butterfly, before further bettering her time by 0.78 seconds to grab a bronze medal.
Wilson continued to set Personal Best times like clockwork when he raced the 400M Freestyle – setting himself a new benchmark of 4 minutes 36.04 seconds.
Harris and Woodrow rounded out their weekends with the Women’s 100M Freestyle before Nathan Yeaman, Nathan Wells, Thomas Baxter and Harvey Isle swam in the Men’s 200M Backstroke.
Baxter and Isle both swam PBs, whilst Wells set a season’s best time to make his way into the final where he would place fourth, just seven hundredths of a second away from a bronze medal.
The Championships are set to continue at the University of East Anglia’s SportsPark across the May Day Bank Holiday Weekend.
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