Yorkshire Championships Feb 2018

Post date: Feb 28, 2018 10:43:25 PM

We had a record 21 swimmers with qualifying times for the Spring Yorkshire Swimming Championships, which just shows how far the Club has come over the last couple of years. Of those, only 14 chose to/were able to swim: Libby Anderson, Heidi Fothergill, Cormac Reilly, Aidan Fothergill, Joe Callin, Meredith Harness, Amy Bettles, Laura Bettles, Callum Tonkins, Aidan Reilly, Emma Pears-Dorland, Emily Hill, Alex Mosey and Joan Clayton.  The events were spread over three weekends in February.

The first weekend got off to a fantastic start with Meredith making the 100m Backstroke final, where she came 5th with a 1.5 second PB over the day, and then Aidan F, Joe and Callum all achieving good PBs in the 200m IM and Joe qualifying for the final, where he finished in 10th place. Saturday afternoon saw Aidan F win his first medal, a Bronze in 100m Breaststroke, while Aidan R swim a good PB in the same event.  Although not at his best, Joe collected another pennant by finishing 10th in the 400m Free final. On Sunday, Meredith swam well again in 100m Fly and 100m Breast and then put in a great PB swim in 400m IM, Amy & Laura finished just ahead of Meredith and with very similar times in 100m Breast, Joe was placed 6th in 200m Free and Callum came nail-bitingly close to a medal in 200m Back, finishing in 4th place. 

On the second Saturday, Amy swam a 4 second PB to earn herself an NER qualifying time in 200m Breaststroke. Later, Joe and Callum both swam great PBs and qualified for the finals, with Callum finishing 9th in a time 14 seconds faster than his entry time (Joe was unfortunately disqualified). Joe saved his best until last with a Silver medal in the 100m Free final.  Sunday brought three exciting finishes in finals: Meredith achieving a brilliant 4th place in 200m Backstroke with a 9 second improvement on the day, Callum clinching a Bronze medal in 100m Backstroke, and Aidan F clawing his way back to win Silver medal in 200m Breaststroke. There were also PB swims for Meredith in 100m Free and Aidan R in 200m Breast.

The third Saturday was Sprints Day, with all the 50m events taking place for all age groups.  The squad did themselves proud with many PB swims, those with 1 second+ improvements being: Joan in Backstroke, Aidan R in Breaststroke, Heidi in Breast and Back, Meredith in Breast, Aidan F in Fly and Back, Joe in Back.  New NER qualifying times were achieved by Joan (Back), Meredith (Breast), Laura (Breast), Aidan R (Breast), Aidan F (Fly and Back) and Joe (Back). Callum would undoubtedly have been challenging for a medal in Back was unfortunately unable to swim due to illness, but we still had 9 finalists: Meredith finishing in 8th in Back and a very unlucky 4th in Fly, just 0.01 second away from a Bronze medal; Joan was 8th in Back; Emily came 6th in Breast; Joe finished 6th but Aidan was disqualified in Fly; Joe won a superb Bronze in Free and was very close to another in Back with a fantastic swim, coming 4th by just 0.02 seconds; and Aidan successfully defended his title of Yorkshire Champion, taking the Gold in Breaststroke.