The second weekend of the Swim England East Region Long Course Championships took place at Norwich’s UEA SportsPark across the May Bank Holiday Weekend.
Saturday began with the 200M Individual Medley, with Millie Harris putting in a personal best swim of 2 minutes 30.79 seconds en route to qualifying for her age group final, where another strong swim saw her take third place and another bronze medal to go alongside the one she earnt on the opening weekend of the championships for the 100M Butterfly.
West Norfolk had four representatives in the Men’s 200M IM with Freddie Laws and Nathan Wells joined by Joshua Jones and Jamie Wilson – the latter two of which both repeated Harris’ feat of setting a personal best time.
Laws, Jones and Wells all secured finals places.
The Boys’ 15 Years’ Final saw a fourth place for Jones, whilst the Men’s 17 Years and Over Final saw Laws take seventh place and Wells secure West Norfolk’s second medal of the weekend with a bronze of his own.
The 100M Backstroke saw Wells and Tobias Oglesby both qualify for the final, where they would go onto place sixth and seventh respectively, whilst Wells and Sam Ross both swam PBs in the heats.
The 50M Breaststroke saw strong West Norfolk representation. Pemberley Hornigold and Eloise Collins both contested the Women’s event, with Collins swimming a personal best to make it through to the final where she placed eighth.
The men’s event Laws and Jones return to the water alongside Finn Ryan, Rhys Burrell and Tom Baxter. Burrell swam a season’s best time of 33.13 seconds whilst Ryan, Laws and Baxter all secured places in the evening’s final.
Having set a personal best time of 34.25 seconds in the heats, Baxter shaved off a further one one-hundredth of a second in the Boys’ 15 Years’ Final to come home sixth whilst, in the Men’s 17 Years and Over Final, Ryan bettered his time from the heats to place fifth, just ahead of a sixth placed Laws.
The Women’s 50M Butterfly saw Millie Harris qualify for the final in her age group where she put in a further top class performance to second place and a silver medal.
Rhys Burrell, Jamie Wilson and Sam Rose contested the Men’s 50M Butterfly, along with Robert Addis, who put in a season’s best performance; Tobias Oglesby, who set a personal best time, and Nathan Wells who made his way into that evening’s final, going on to place eighth.
Harris and Rose were quickly back in the pool for the 200M Freestyle, where Rose set a season’s best time of 2 minutes 5.04 seconds to close out Saturday.
Sunday 5th May saw the 1500M Freestyle events take place. Esmie Kidman swam the second fast time of her swimming career whilst Jamie Wilson swam a personal best to take a silver medal in the Boys’ 15 Years’ age category.
Bank Holiday Monday brought with it the start of the age group events for swimmers aged 14 years and younger.
Polly Anderson, Milly Johnson, Valeria Soldatihhina, Harry Clarke and Alex Pattison all took part in the 200M Individual Medley. The latter three all scored personal best times, with Soldatihhina and Clarke both making finals.
Both would better their times again in the final, with Clarke placing sixth in the Boys’ 11 and 12 Years’ category and Soldatihhina taking a silver medal in the Girls’ 11 and 12 Years category.
All five swimmers also raced the 50M Breaststroke alongside Rejus Mazeika. Anderson, Johnson, Clarke and Pattison all set personal best times, with Clarke progressing through to the final for his age category, where he set another PB to come home sixth.
Samuel Liddell and Olivia Bradford had their first swims of the Championships in the 100M Butterfly, alongside Pattison, Johnson and Soldatihhina.
Bradford, Johnson and Soldatihhina all set personal best times with the latter progressing through to the final where she repeated the feat to set a new personal benchmark of 1 minute 16.09 seconds en route to placing fifth of the eight finalists.
The 50M Backstroke saw a hat trick of West Norfolk Personal Best times in the heats courtesy of Soldatihhina, Mazeika and Anderson.
Soldatihhina booked herself yet another finals spot and duly set yet another PB on the way to winning herself a second silver medal.
Soldatihhina’s final heats swim of the weekend came in the 200M Freestyle where she was joined by her teammates Clarke, Johnson, Anderson and Nellie Chadderton. Anderson and Soldatihhina both set personal best times, with the latter closing out her weekend with one last finals appearance and a seventh place finish.
The Championships conclude on the 11th and 12th May.
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