East Region Short Course Winter Championships
Congratulations to all the swimmers who represented the Pink Army at this past weekend’s Winter Regionals! We had a strong team of 28 swimmers competing over the three days of the competition. The women’s 800m free kicked off the event and our first swimmer was Ever Ives. This was followed by the 1500m free for men with Oliver Fenwick and Perrin Ma competing in the gruelling event.
Saturday had two sessions of heats with the fastest eight swimmers in each event moving on the compete again in the evening’s finals. The men’s 400m free medals were also decided in these sessions as were the 1500m free and 400IM for women. Daniel Belsey came home with Hatfield’s first medal of the championships by claiming bronze. We also had a mixed 4×50 free team of Ben, Ever, Alexandra and James placed 5th.
Our first swimmer in Saturday’s finals was Erin Currie claiming 7th place in the 50m backstroke. The next to compete were Ashley Ransome and Caitlin Hartley in the 100m breaststroke. In a very exciting race for Hatfield, the girls finished 1-2 claiming gold and silver! Alexandra Nurney was soon up in the 100IM and in a very close finish, she touched second. Directly after that race was the men’s 100m back where Oliver Baskerville was rewarded with a silver medal in a super close finish between 2nd to 5th finishers. With very little rest between races, Alexandra raced again. This time in the 100m free where she finished 8th. Daniel Belsey was next in the water for the 200m free where he touched in 4th place. James Woodward took to the pool a few races later in the 50m butterfly earing himself a bronze medal. The session conclude with some exciting relays. First off was the men’s 4×50 free, where Hatfield’s team of Lucas Dyson Diaz, Ben Davison, Daniel Williams and James Woodward claimed 3rd place in a blanket finish. The women’s 4×50 medley team was next and Hatfield’s team of Erin Currie, Ashley Ransome, Alexandra Nurney and Katie Jeffrey were just touched out into 4th place by a mere .04 seconds.
After a successful day on Saturday, the swimmers arrived at Luton ready to go on Sunday morning. The day was again split into to sessions of heats followed by finals. During the heats, medals were decided for the women’s 400m free and men’s 400IM. Sam Jeffrey swam in the 400IM and finished in 9th place. There was also a mixed 4×50 medley relay where Hatfield’s team of Oliver Baskerville, Ashley Ransome, James Woodward and Alexandra Nurney finished in silver medal position.
Sunday’s final session started for Hatfield with Oliver in the 50m backstroke finishing in 8th place. Alexandra was up next in the 50m free where she finish in 7th place. James took on the 100IM next, claiming first place and a gold medal. Camille Vannier and Alexandra were both in the 100m back a few races later where they finished 6th and 8th respectively. Next to swim was Ever in the 200m free. In a close finish, she was just out touched into 4th place.
The men’s 200m backstroke followed and Oliver swam a strong race to take the gold. Two more swimmers, Ashley and Caitlin, competed in the 50m breaststroke final where we had another win with Ashley coming home first and Caitlin finishing 4th. Our last win of the night came in the 800m free, where Daniel Belsey pulled away from the field to capture gold. The final two races of the competition were relays. In the women’s 4×50 free, our team of Katie, Ever, Erin and Alexandra finished just out of the medals in forth place. The men’s medley team with Oliver, Lucas Dyson Diaz, James and Ben took 5th place.
Well done to all the swimmers who qualified and represented Hatfield so well. It was great to see so many pink caps in the finals. It’s always nice to come away with a few trophies and Regional Champions as well!
