14 swimmers from Worcester travelled down to Cardiff on the 16/17th November 2013, for the prestigious Level 1 “Welsh Capital” open meet.
The standard of competition was extremely high with top swimmers from throughout the UK attracted to the fabulous 50m pool in Cardiff.
The whole team enjoyed success with lots of big Personal Best times swum.
In terms of medals, Matthew Richards led the way with an impressive haul of six in the 9/10 boys age group… 5 silver and 1 gold, a beautifully crafted 200m Individual Medley that showed off his all around skills.
Not far behind was James Marsh with 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze… his best swim arguably the excellent 1.00.78 that secured 3rd place in the 15/16 100m Butterfly.
Also on top form was National semi finalist Tabby Monkhouse, who won Gold in the 50m and 200m Breaststroke… her 2.45.64 a 4.7 second long course Personal Best in the 200m event.
Probably the happiest swimmer of all though was Olivia Fletcher, who secured her first Regional qualifying times in the 100m & 200m Freestyle with excellent times of 1.11.37 & 2.33.90 respectively.
There were several other highlights too. Leyla Tayar strung a series of great swims together in the 11/u events, especially in the Breaststroke races, whilst her old sister Yasemin swam a superb 33.23 in the 50m Butterfly. William Hadley got close to breaking the 1 minute barrier long course in his 100m Freestyle whilst Mike Adair came very close to repeating his recent short course heroics in 200m Backstroke, in the longer pool, with a 5.5 second long course Personal Best. Sophie Groves was delighted with her long course Personal Best in the 100m Fly, maintaining excellent technique and rhythm throughout. Emily Stancer posted a new long course Personal Best in the 100m Freestyle, whilst Catrin Carter came tantalisingly close to recording a new best in the same event, a great effort after having been ill. Finally, the Breaststroke girls did not disappoint, recording small long course Personal Bests… Lucy Clayton in her 100m & 200m events, Alice Hayden Jones in the 50m & 100m.