Regional Championships Final Weekend (14 & Under)

The 8th to 10th of May saw our 14 years and under regional qualifiers back at Luton competing against the rest of the region’s top swimmers. The weekend started off with the last of the distance races, the 800m free, on the Friday evening. Hatfield were represented by three boys and three girls in this event. In the male 11/12 years, Julien Vannier finished in 8th place while in the 13 year age groups, brothers Leo and George Sims placed 6th and 15th. Catherine Hatherly was 8th in the girls 11/12 years event while Jorgi Bhasvi came 10th in the next age group up and Nieve Ives was 9th in the 14 year olds.

The next morning it was the turn of the girl’s 200m fly, boy’s 50m fly, girl’s 100m breast, boy’s 200m breast and girl’s 400m free. Sara Onobrauche was our only representative in the 200m fly and she finished in 20th place. Again, we only had one swimmer in the 50m fly and that was Oliver Barrows who placed 39th in his age group. Selena Spaho swam a strong breaststroke to qualify for her final, Jorgi placed 17th in the 13 year olds with Aoife Blessing 29th and Nieve booked her finals spot in the 14 year olds with Aria Waters coming 27th. In the 200 breast, Oliver finished in 19th, Leo in 12th in his age group and Ching Yau 12th in his. The 400 free was a timed final event. Catherine placed 5th and Selena 23rd in the 11/12 year olds, Jorgi was 12th in the 13 year olds and Sara 26th in the 14 year olds.

After a short break, it was time for the next session of heats. First up were the boys in the 100m backstroke. Julien was our only swimmer and finished in 10th place making him 2nd reserve for the final. Taking on the girl’s 200m back, Hatfield had three swimmers. In the 11/12 year old group, Selena finished in 25th with Catherine a place behind in 26th. In the 13 year age group, Aoife placed 9th and so was 1st reserve for that final. The slightly shorter 50m free was next for the boys. With a strong heat swim, Julien booked his place in the final. In the next age group, Leo was 10th and 2nd reserve while George was 15th. The girls took on the 100 free with Catherine swimming well to stake her finals place. Jorgi and Aoife also competed and came 24th and 30th. The last event of the day was the 400m IM which was another timed final event. Leo and George were the only Pink Army swimmers to take on this event finishing 5th and 9th respectively.

The finals session began after another break and warm-up. We had a short wait through the butterfly events before our first swimmer, Selena, raced in the 100m breaststroke final. She took 7th place. Two races later and Nieve was in the water. In a nail biting finish between four swimmers all looking for medals, she took home the silver. Catherine was up next in the 100m free and came home in 5th place. Our last swimmer of the day was Julien in the 50m free final. He dropped time from the heats and finished in 7th place.

The final day of competition began with the gruelling boy’s 200m butterfly. Oliver Barrows was our first swimmer to tackle the event and placed 12th. Next was Leo who finished in 7th. Aoife and Jorgi were the only Hatfield girls to race the 50m fly and they came15th and 18th. In the boy’s 100m breaststroke, Oliver was in action again, this time finishing 14th. Ching Yau also competed and finished in 9th which made him first reserve. Two girls qualified for the final in the 200m breaststroke. Selena in 5th and Catherine in 8th. Nieve also qualified in 5th place in the 14 year old age group with Aria also competing in the event. Finally, the boys swam the 400m free. Julien was 12th in the 11/12 year old boys with Tommy Camilotti finishing 22nd. Leo and George were also in action and placed 5th and 16th.

The last session of heats started with Aoife swimming the 100m backstroke. She swam her way to a finals place. In the longer, 200m event for boys, Julien was 11th. In the next age group, Leo also finished in 11th place. The 50m free followed and Catherine placed 17th in this. Jorgi and Aoife hit the water again as well, this time they were in 19th and 30th. The final boys event was the 100m free. Julien and Tommy both swam this with Tommy coming 26th and Julien earning a finals spot. Leo and George were both competing as well and ended up 9th and 22nd. Rounding out the session was the girl’s 400IM. Catherine, after a busy weekend, claimed 7th place. In her age group, Nieve equalled that placing.

After a long few weeks, the final finals session began. First up was Leo who took on the 200m butterfly. He dug in on his second swim of the event in the day and moved up to 5th place. Our next competitors were Catherine and Selena in the 200m breaststroke. Catherine finished in 8th and Selena, with a massive seven second drop in time from the heats, won herself a silver medal. In the 14 year old final, Nieve touched in 5th place. Next to race was Julien in the 100m free. He swam another strong race to come in 6th. Leo hit the water again for the same race in the next age group and finished in 7th. Aoife was our next and last finalist of the competition. She took on the 100m back and finished 8th in a slightly faster time than her heat swim.

Well done to all the swimmers who qualified and took part in this year’s long course regional championships. It was a long few weekends of competition for swimmers, parents, TM’s, officials and coaches. Now it’s back to training and hard work to make improvements for the rest of the season!