West Norfolk Swimming Club took a 28-strong squad to the recent National Qualifier event held at Sandwell Aquatics Centre, Birmingham. Sandwell Aquatics Centre was built as part of the investment for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, offering these swimmers a rare opportunity to swim in such a venue. Against strong swimmers from across the UK, West Norfolk finished the weekend with 45 top three medal positions and 65 long course (50m pool) personal best times.
Jamie Wilson (16 years) and Kye Harrington (17 & over) kicked off the team’s medal haul with a Gold and Bronze medal, respectively, in the male 200m Butterfly, while youngest squad member, Martha More swam to the team’s first female medal of the event, taking Silver, in a PB time, for the 11 years 200m IM. Valeria Soldatihhina and Elizabeth Litvinenko followed More with Gold and Bronze medals respectively in the same event for the 12 years age group with Litvinenko swimming a PB. She was back in action again later in the 1st session, taking a Gold medal for her 100m Butterfly swim with another PB time.
Joshua Jones (16 years) brought home the Silver medal for the male 100m Breaststroke event, with Thomas Baxter following him in to grab the Bronze before Rejus Mazeika and Samuel Liddell also swam to Silver and Bronze medals in the 14 years 50m Freestyle, with Liddell swimming his in a PB time! The first sessions rounded off with the 1500m Freestyle event which saw Jamie Wilson take his 2nd medal of the session, a Silver and Esmie Kidman also taking Silver in the female 17 years& over age group.
Martha More was back in action in the 2nd session of the meet, taking another two Silver medals for the 200m Freestyle (PB) and 100m Backstroke events, completing a strong first day for her. Valeria Soldatihhina also finished the first day strongly with Silver medals in the 200m and 400m Freestyle events in the 12 years age group, both in PB times. Milly Johnson also enjoyed success in the 200m Freestyle (15 years), swimming to a Silver place in a PB time before adding the Gold in the 400m event too. Joshua Jones continued his strong performance from the morning session with a Silver in 200m Breaststroke and a Gold medal winning swim in the 400IM with Elizabeth Litvinenko (12 years) and Ruby Baxter (14 years) adding a Silver and Bronze, respectively, in the female 50m Butterfly, both in PB times. The first day of swimming concluded with the male 50m Breaststroke with Rejus Mazeika and Samuel Liddell swimming to Gold and Bronze, respectively in the 14 years age group and Thomas Baxter taking the Gold for the 16 years.
The second day of racing started strong for West Norfolk with a Gold medal winning swim from Valeria Soldatihhina in the female 12 years 200m Butterfly. Soldatihhina followed this up with a Silver later on in the session for the 200m Backstroke, in a PB time. Sarah O’Brien swam to a Silver medal in the 17 years & over 100m Breaststroke before Jamie Wilson was back in the pool for the second day to take Gold in the male, 16 years, 100m Butterfly with a new PB time before Martha More added to her medal tally with
another Silver, this time in the female, 11 years, 200m Backstroke with another PB for her.
Polly Anderson kicked off her day with a Bronze medal and PB in the 13 years age group 200m Backstroke before Den Vojevoda (12 years) hit the wall first to take the Gold in the male 50m Backstroke with a PB time. Thomas Baxter gained a Bronze medal for the same event in the 16 year age category with a new PB. Milly Johnson added a Bronze and another PB to her first day medal haul in the female, 15 years, 50m Freestyle. The morning session ended with the 800m Freestyle event where Jamie Wilson picked up a Bronze, his 4th medal of the weekend, and Esmie Kidman collected her second Silver.
The final session of the competition saw Martha More complete her weekend of swims with another Silver and PB in the female, 11 years, 100m Freestyle, taking her tally to 5 medals. Sarah O’Brien went one better in the 200m Breastrstroke and added a Gold to the Silver she had already secured for the 100m distance, before Valeria Soldatihhina grabbed a Bronze medal for the 12 years 200m Breaststroke swim before adding a further Gold to her collection in the 400IM, both with a PB. Den Vojevoda followed up his 50m Backstroke success with a Silver in the 100m distance to conclude his weekend while Milly Johnson rounded off her weekend with a Silver medal in the 15 years, 100m Freestyle and a Bronze for her 400m IM swim. Rejus Mazeika (14 years) and Thomas Baxter (16 years) completed the West Norfolk medal haul by adding a Bronze to their weekend’s medals in the 50m Butterfly.
Other PBs from the weekend were achieved by Daniel Grimmer, George Stevenson, Harry Clarke, Junru Cai, Madison Hicks, Nathan Yeaman, Nellie Chadderton, Pemberley Hornigold, Thomas-Arthur Jagger and Wiktoria Marcinek.
