East Region Championships -Weekend 2 (15 years and Over)
The Bank Holiday weekend saw our 15 years and older regional qualifiers head off to Norwich for the last days of their competition. Three heats session were followed by a finals session on Saturday before the last distance event, the 1500m free, commenced on the Sunday morning.
Starting off the weekend was the 200m IM. Sam Jeffrey finished in 10th place and was 2nd reserve for the final. After two withdrawals he was promoted into the evening’s final. It was a similar story in the women’s 100m backstroke where Erin Currie and Summer Boswell placed 9th and 10th respectively. An early withdrawal saw Erin take a spot in the upcoming final and Summer into first reserve. After the withdrawal cut-off time, another swimmer pulled out but unfortunately, Summer had already gone home so wasn’t able to take her place in the final.
The next session began with the men’s 100m back where Tommy Fenwick finished in 8th place to secure a finals spot. A short while later, Oliver Baskerville came 4th in the 17 and over age group and booked his finals swim. After some strong swims from the girls in the 50m butterfly, Ashley Ransome finished in 4th place but decided to withdraw from the final to focus on her preferred event of 50m breaststroke later in the day. In the men’s 50m fly, Daniel Williams tied for 10th making him one of the 2nd reserve swimmers.
First up in the last heats session of the day was the 50m breaststroke. Caitlin Hartley and Ashley both put in strong swims to qualify 3rd and 1st for the upcoming final. In the last event of the day, Perrin Ma qualified in 5th place for the 15 year olds final. There were some good swims from the older boys in the event with K-ets Yah-Khai taking the 1st reserve spot and Daniel Belsey placing 3rd.
In an exciting finals session, Hatfield came away with more medals and some really good swims. Sam was first to swim and had a great race in the 200IM to move himself up to 5th place. Erin also swam well and moved up the order by touching in 7th in the 100m back. Tommy matched her result by also finishing in 7th in his final. Oliver was involved in a close race in the 17 and over final and managed to capture a bronze medal when he out touched a competitor by one tenth of a second. Our final girl’s finalists, Ashley and Caitlin both dropped time from their morning swims and came away with silver and bronze respectively. It was a very close finish with Ashley just being pipped by one hundredth of a second. Caitlin’s medal completed a hattrick for her in all three breaststroke events. The 200m free was the last event of the day. With a drop in time from his heat’s swim, Perrin moved up a place to fourth in the final. To conclude the evening, Daniel swam his 200m free. With three swimmers pulling away from the pack. he put in a fantastic effort to grab a bronze medal as well as a hard earned PB.
Sunday morning saw a lone Hatfield swimmer take on the 1500m free. Oliver Fenwick, swimming in the 17 years and over age group, finished in 9th place.
Well done to all our senior swimmer’s for a fantastic and successful Regional Championships! Now it’s over to the younger swimmers as they take on the rest of the region. Let’s go Pink Army!