Coaches Report

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This year the club sent seven swimmers to the annual ASA East Regional Championship, held in both Luton & Norwich, a significant improvement on the previous year. These championships  saw all the top swimmers from all the east regional counties coming together to compete over two weekends. With the ASA National qualifying window nearing the end, the stakes were high and the swimmers were under a great deal of pressure to produce some good results.

Two of our swimmers were competing at Luton at the youth championships from 29th of April-1st May, Immy Horne-Morris was competing in the 50m Breastroke in the 16 year age category, finishing in respectable 22nd place.

India Weston competed in six events, making 3 finals in the 15 year age category, day one began with the 50m freestyle finishing with a respectable 29th place, followed by the 200m Breastroke event posting a heat time of 2:50.30 ranking her 6th going into the final, holding the field well and increasing her stroke rate in the final 50m to finish in 5th place and improving on her heat time by over 2 seconds touching in 2:48.06. India also made the finals in 100m Breastroke, finishing 5th & posting a time of 1:19.14, & finishing 6th in the 200IM posting a time of 2:32.94, This was India’s second Regional championship, competing in her first in the 50m Backstroke, India continues to make significant improvements & we look forward to seeing her make more improvements in the coming months & seasons ahead.

Four weeks later , five of our junior swimmers were competing at the age group Regionals held in Norwich over the May bank holiday weekend. Abi Gotts, Emily Haslam & Alanya Shaw were competing in their first Regionals, with Mollie White & Matilda Meyrick returning from the previous year.

All the girls raced well throughout the three days, achieving long course personal best’s, finals, & medals along the way, Emily Haslam swam a strong race in the 50m freestyle, finishing with a time of 30.61, in 35th place out of 61, in the 13 year old category, a good result & pb. In the same race Abi Gotts swam a good heat to finish 7th in the 11/12 year old category, progressing to her first regional final finishing 8th overall. Abi also competed in the50m, 100m, & 200m Breastroke events as well as the 100m & 200m freestyle events. On the final day Abi swam a fantastic 200m freestyle race, pulling away from the field in her heat on the first 50m, attacking the race from the start, maintaining her lead only to be touched into second place by a tiny margin, missing out on a place in the final, however producing a very respectable pb of more than 2 seconds touching in 2:27.33, a great swim overall.

Mollie White competed in three Breastroke events, which is a considerable feat considering a very difficult season dealing with injuries, producing strong swims to place 17th, 14th & 12th in the 100m, 200m, & 50m Breaststroke events in  the 14 year old category.

Alanya Shaw, also having struggled with injury this season finished 24th in the 100m Butterfly, & 30th in the 50m Butterfly in the 13 year old category.

Finally Matilda Meyrick had some good performances in the Backstroke Events, collecting two bronze medals in the 50m & 100m, & gold in the 200m Backstroke. After disappointment in the 200m Backstroke heats Matilda went into the final in second place, maintaining the second place through most of the race behind Emma Cruickshank from team Ipswich, increasing her stroke rate effectively in the last 50m to gain the lead & take the win.

Overall with Vikings swimmers making eight finals over the two weekends, all producing some respectable swims, a great effort & a good indication of direction the club is moving in, I would hope to see an increase in the number of swimmers qualifying in 2018.

Well done to everyone who took part in these championships.

 

Adam Crafer

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