Twelve Worcester swimmers travelled to Corby, Northamptonshire on Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd May for the combined East & West Midlands Youth/Senior Championships for the best 15/over athletes in the Region.
Para swimmer Rebecca Redfern continued her remarkable progress picking up a medal in each of the 5 events in which she competed and smashing the S.13 visually impaired British record for 50m Breaststroke, recording 38.30 to knock over 2 seconds off the previous mark!
The busiest swimmer on the team was Sam Hall with a gruelling ten events – from which he made six 15-year old Finals. Showcasing his talents brilliantly, he narrowly missed a medal in the 200m Individual Medley (by a mere 0.12) but stormed to a well deserved Silver in the 200m Breaststroke, also narrowly snatchling a Bronze in the 50m Breaststroke…posting times in these and several other events that give him an excellent chance of qualifying for English Championships in the Summer.
Also recording super quick times was Lucy Clayton. Whilst she had to settle for 4th in the Final of the 16’s 50m Breaststroke, her Heats time of 35.16 puts her currently 19th in the race for 24 places at British Champs.
Robin Williams was also in fine form, yet again proving himself one of the leading sprint Freestyle/Butterfly swimmers around, reaching all four Finals…though he only made the 50m Freestyle Final after a rare head-to-head swim-off having finished joint 8th in the Heats! He collected 2 medals in the senior 17/over age group, Silver in the 50m Butterfly and Bronze in the 100m.
In the same open age group, James Marsh qualified for all 3 Breaststroke Finals on 50/100/200m but had to settle for minor places…perhaps unsurprising given the talent on show, including just a few lanes over the brilliant World Record holder Adam Peatty!
The other swimmers to secure the testing Qualifying Times for this top level competition and represent Worcester at Midland Championships were Sophie Groves, Samantha Gearey, Lizzie Bentley, Ben Holmes, William Hadley, Mike Adair and Anthony Redfern.