Club Swimming Gala has competitive edge.
There was a competitive edge, sibling rivalries and exciting finger tip finishes at the North Norfolk Vikings Swimming Club Championships held at the Victory Pool; all of which nestled into a friendly atmosphere amongst the competitors . As expected there were a number of Viking skirmishes and some stoic swims from the juniors.
Lily Dear hit a six of gold medals Over the 50m freestyle she easily won the event in 37.31 defeating nine fellow Vikings. Lily’s second gold came in the 50m breastsroke with 0.51 well ahead of five competitors. Lily, aged 10, then claimed a hat-trick of golds by proving her versatility when she triumphed in the 200m freestyle (3:10.34) and then she came home in 1.27.25 taking the 100m. Reverting back to breastroke her fifth gold was achieved in the 200m (4.02.66) and she added the 100m with her 1:55.84 respectively.
Perhaps two of the most courageous swims came from 11 year olds, Bebe King and Leona Scott in their first 200m Individual Medley (IM). covering eight lengths of the pool on all four strokes. Bebe won the event in 3.46.37 and Leona touched in 4.39.91. to take the silver respectively. Both have only just started competing and their tenacity delighted the spectators to see them complete the swim. Bebe later went on to win the 100m IM in 1:44.12
Brothers George and Zak Edridge of Tunstead, made their races a real contest and although George won more medals than his twin brother, the balance of power was shared on either side of the lane ropes in respective breaststroke events. In the 200m it was Zak winning in 3:33.62 and won a second gold in the 50m with 44.4 with George the runner up in both events. However, in the 100m it was George who was victorious over his brother when he scored 1:43.56. whilst Zak had to settle for the silver with only half a second separating the two 13 year olds.
Senior Harry Hudson has had an exceptional year for the Vikings achieving a number of regional times. Harry will be out to build upon his club championships successes of 100m freestyle (56.97) 50m Freestyle (25.61), 100m butterfly (1:07.72) 50m Butterfly (1:07.72) and 100 individual Medley (1:03.8) at next month’s County Championships.
Noah Buchan also won 5 gold medals, Michael Sayer 6 and Leah Harris 6.