East Region Championships – Weekend 2

Last weekend saw the second instalment of the East Region Long Course Swimming Championships. Yet again, swimmers who had qualified travelled with their parents up to Norwich to race at the University of East Anglia’s Sportspark pool. The competition stretched over three days with the 15+ age swimmers competing on Saturday, closing their campaigns with the 1500m free races on the Sunday morning. From there, the baton was handed over to the 14 and under swimmers who started their part in the competition with 1500m swims in the afternoon. Following this, Monday held a full day of racing for these age groups with heats and finals. The finale for them will be closer to home at Luton this coming weekend.

Saturday started with the 200IMs, followed by 100m backstroke events, 50m fly, 50m breast and culminated with the 200m free. The finals session was in the evening and Ever Ives was our first competitor. She came a close 4^th. Sam Jeffrey followed, finishing 6^th. Next up was Alexandra Nurney in the 50m butterfly. She led from the beginning and took the gold medal! Ashley Ransome went in the open final and finished in 6^th place.

With very little rest between her finals, Alexandra was up again for the 100m backstroke where she came 4^th in a close finish. Two races later and it was the turn of Erin Currie coming in 6^th. Oliver Baskerville was our only boy in the backstroke. In a very tight race, he touched 3^rd to claim bronze. Next came the 50m breaststroke finals. Mercy Adeoye finished 6^th in the 16yrs age group and in the following final, Ashley took a silver medal. In the open boys, Lucas Hartley finished in 8^th place.

In the last races of the day, Alexandra was our first representative in the 200m free. In another close race, she swam home to bronze. Ever was in action again next and took the win in her age group of 16 year olds. In the boys final of the same age, we had two swimmers, Oliver Fenwick and K-Ets Yah-Khai, who were 7^th and 8^th respectively. The last final of the night saw Daniel Belsey in action. He came away in 3^rd place.

Sunday morning and the 1500m was the race of the day. We had a handful of swimmers in this grueling race. Oliver F placed 6^th in the 16yr old boys. In the 17+ group, Dan B came 5^th, Sam 9^th and Daniel Williams 12^th. Our lone female swimmer was Millie Richardson who had a strong showing to take a silver medal.

In the afternoon, the younger swimmers took on the 1500m. Brothers, Leo and George Sims finished 6^th and 7^th respectively. Todd Leung was 10^th in the 13yr olds. For the 14yr olds, Hatfield secured two medals with Tommy Fenwick claiming bronze and Perrin Ma winning gold!

Bank holiday Monday saw more pink shirts arrive at the pool for another day of racing. For some of these swimmers it was their first time competing in regionals. Our finalists on the night were Nieve, Tommy and Perrin. Nieve finished 7^th in the 200IM, took gold in the 50m breast (which was the closest finish of the meet so far for the medals) and 7^th in the 100m butterfly. Tommy was 8^th in the IM and 5^th in the 50m back. Perrin also took 5^th place but in the 200m free.

Well done to all our swimmers and thank you to the parents for getting them there! Also, thank you to our coaches, TM’s and officials. Good luck to everyone next week!