At the recent West Midland Championships – held at the Coventry 50m swimming pool over the first two weekends in May – Worcester’s swimmers put in some stunning performances, bagging an excellent 32 medals – 10 Gold, 12 Silver and 10 Bronze
In the 14-year old age group, Dylan Lewis was on fire making it a clean sweep in the Backstroke events – winning the 50m, 100m & 200m races in impressive style, all by very clear margins – as well as taking Gold in the 50m and 100m Freestyle, plus Silver in the 50m Butterfly.
In the 15-year old age group, Theo Rogers also returned with a 6-medal haul. His solo Gold came in the 100m Backstroke and whilst a second outside his Personal Best Time from earlier in the season, it was a gutsy performance, showcasing a determination to win
In the 16-year old age group, Ben Gooch often proved a tad “unlucky”, his having to settle for Silver by 0.03s in the 100m Butterfly a case in point. However, in the 50m races, he was pure class and unstoppable winning the sprint Butterfly, Backstroke and Freestyle all with lovely PB times
Theo and Ben also teamed up with Henry Hoare and William Thomas to take a fantastic Bronze medal in the 16/u 4x100m Freestyle relay – a stunning team effort that will hopefully see the quartet qualify for British Summer Championships
No doubt inspired by his older team mates, debutant Tarek Bluck also demonstrated his incredible potential, making multiple Finals in the 13-year old age group and winning two Bronze medals in the 50m and 100m Butterfly
For the Girls, Gold was a bit harder to come by, most of the Worcester finalists having to settle for the minor medals
The exception was Asha Mahanta who after Silver in the 100m Butterfly and 50m Backstroke plus Bronze in the 200m Backstroke and 200m Individual Medley, finally managed to top the Podium in the 100m Backstroke. Producing a stunning PB, she got the best of an exhilarating fingertip finish (0.03s) to win Gold
In the same 15-year old age group, there were awesome performances from Brecon Westwood (Silver 200m Breaststroke, Bronze 800m Freestyle) and Frankie Barry (Silver 50m Butterfly and Freestyle), both stepping up in Finals to win their highly prized medals
In the 16-year old age group, Grace Earp again showed why she is one of the leading Breaststrokers Nationally in her age group. Whilst she had to settle for two Silver medals in the 100m and 200m events, a 4 second PB in the latter augurs extremely well for the remainder of the 2023 season
In the 17+, both Zara Beaumont and Jasmine Kilmartin picked up Bronze medals in the 400m Individual Medley and 1500 Freestyle respectively, much deserved reward for their focus, determination and hard work
Many others in the team excelled though too and there were lots of other Finalists including notably Lincoln Lewitzkyi (13’s 200m Butterfly), Grace Ryder (15’s 50m & 100m Breaststroke), William Thomas (16’s 50m Breaststroke), Emily Clacher (17+ 50m Breaststroke) and Harvey Lloyd (17+ 50m Breaststroke)
Above all, though, it was simply fantastic to have so many Worcester swimmers – 36 – competing at this level, and many congratulations go to all the other swimmers who represented the Club at the Championships with such distinction, invariably producing Personal Best swims…Abigail Haldane, Alex Hayes, Carmen West, Freya Halsey, Grace Ciancio, Hana Duncan, Isabelle Thorn, James Hill, Joseph O’Leary, Joshua Round, Julia Wolska-Bailey, Lydia Cooper, Martha Colville, Matt James, Michael Agoston, Pru Goodison, Robert Gearey, Toby Pugh, William Pridden and Xanthe Carrington-Abraham