Five swimmers from West Norfolk Swimming club were in action at the British Swimming Championships in Sheffield between Tuesday 4th and Sunday 9th April.
Four were in action on the opening day, with Nathan Wells and Tobias Oglesby kicking off proceedings in the Men’s 50M Backstroke. Oglesby set a season’s best time of 28.16 seconds before Wells started his championships off in style by setting not only a personal best time but a Norfolk County Record of 26.54 seconds.
Freddie Laws was up next, swimming a time of 1 minute 5.29 seconds to set a season’s best in the 100M Breaststroke, before Molly Lee put in a season’s best of her own in the Women’s 50M event for the same stroke.
Wednesday morning saw Laws back in action early doors, clocking a 30.16 second swim in the Men’s 50M Breaststroke – another season’s best performance which was repeated by Wells with a time of 57.45 seconds in his 100M Backstroke event.
Come the afternoon, Sarah O’Brien became the fifth and final West Norfolk swimmer to take to the pool, completing the 200M Breaststroke in a time of 2 minutes and 44.83 seconds.
Thursday 6th saw Wells hit the pool once again with a 4 minute 38.73 second swim in the gruelling 400M Individual Medley.
Friday saw one of the highlights of the week courtesy of Laws’ performance in the 200M Breaststroke. A season’s best time of 2 minutes 20.07 seconds in the heats was enough to send himself through to the final for his age category – where a new personal best time of 2 minutes 18.95 seconds saw him take joint fourth place in a tightly contested race.
Saturday saw yet another season’s best for Wells – a 2 minutes 8.25 seconds in the 200M IM – before Sunday saw Lee and O’Brien join him for the final day of competition.
The pair swam times of 1.13.78 (Lee – Season’s Best) and 1.15.87 (O’Brien) in the Women’s 100M Breaststroke leaving Wells to round off the week with solid performances in the 200M Backstroke (2.08.69 – Season’s Best) and 200M Freestyle (1.58.21).
