The Swim England National Winter Championships were held at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield from the 2nd to the 4th December. Unlike the Summer Championships, the Winter event is held in a 25 Metre ‘short-course’ swimming pool as opposed to using a 50 Metre ‘long-course’ facility.
Four West Norfolk swimmers were in action – Molly Lee; Freddie Laws; Nathan Wells and Sarah O’Brien.
The opening day of competition on Friday 2nd December saw Lee; O’Brien and Wells all take to the pool.
The Women’s 100M Breaststroke saw a strong swim from Lee to put in a season’s best performance of 1 minute 12.95 seconds whilst O’Brien dug deep to break her personal best time on her way to a 34th place in the country and a time of 1 minute 11.79 seconds.
Wells swam season’s best performances in both the 100 and 400 Metre Individual Medley (IM) events, placing 12th in the 100M and 15th in the 400M.
Day One also saw Wells achieve a new personal best 2 minutes 2.04 seconds in the 200 Metre Backstroke, placing 18th.
Despite struggling with illness, Laws joined Wells and Lee on Saturday 3rd December, toughing it to complete the 100M Breaststroke in 64.08 seconds.
Wells then put in a pair of season’s best performances in the 200M IM and 50M Backstroke, before Lee repeated the feat in her 50M Breaststroke event.
Carrying his momentum into the following day, Wells kick-started proceedings on Sunday morning with a new personal best time of 55.60 seconds in the 100 Metre Backstroke.
Laws, still very much under the weather, defied the odds to swim a season’s best in the Men’s 200 Metre Breaststroke on his way to an 11th place finish.
Wells closed out his championships with a season’s best in the 200M Freestyle, before O’Brien finished off West Norfolk’s weekend with a fantastic swim in the Women’s 200M Breaststroke to set a new personal best of 2 minutes 37.65 seconds.
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West Norfolk Swimming Club are looking to recruit new swimmers for 2023 – particularly those aged seven to ten for it’s introductory WNSC Academy programme. Those interested are encouraged to visit the club’s website for further information.
