At the recent West Midland Championships – held at the Sandwell 50m swimming pool over 5 days in late April and early May – Worcester’s swimmers put in some stunning performances, bagging an impressive 35 medals – 15 Gold, 8 Silver and 13 Bronze
The Championships started off in spectacular style on “Super Saturday” (April 28th) with a scarcely believable 18 finalists delivering 13 medals! The highlight was undoubtedly the Boys’ 50m Backstroke in which Tarek Bluck, Dylan Lewis and Theo Rogers won 3 consecutive Finals in 30.06, 28.88 & 27.82 to each take Gold in the 14, 15 & 16 year old age groups!
All three boys won other medals too – notably Tarek who amassed 6 including further Golds in the 50m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle, his 27.6/28.3 splits for 55.98 in the Free a stunning piece of pacing!
Whilst missing out on Gold, another Worcester swimmer to “make a statement” was 13-year old Charlie Coleman, his 5 medals – a mix of 2 Silver and 3 Bronze – coming in Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle races, firmly announcing himself as a multi stroke swimmer to watch for the future
The Club’s most successful swimmer though was Asha Mahanta who was simply on fire, winning 6 medals in total in the 16-year old age group including the 50m and 100m Butterfly double plus a clean sweep in the Backstroke races, taking the 50m, 100m and 200m events. None were easy though…in the 50m and 100m Butterfly, her margins of victory were 0.11s and 0.05s…in the 50m and 100m Backstroke, just 0.18s and 0.19s…Asha’s fierce determination winning the day…before she rounded off the Meet with a monster 5s Personal Best Time of 2.25.19 to take the 200m Backstroke by a distance!
In the same age group, team mates Grace Ryder and Brecon Westwood enjoyed themselves in the Breaststroke events, notably the 100m in which they finished neck and neck, Grace taking Silver just 0.05s ahead of Brecon in Bronze…before Grace added another silver and bronze in the 50m and 200m races
In the 17+ age group, fresh from their exploits at Olympic Trials, Grace Earp and Bella Hoare demonstrated their class. Grace picked up a brace of silver medals in the 100m and 200m Breaststroke – the latter in a stunning 5s PB of 2.38.71 – whilst Bella, who did a huge programme of events on Free and Individual Medley, took a hat-trick of bronze medals as reward for her efforts
There were also 5 medals from the Club’s three Para swimmers. GB internationals Becky and Matt Redfern were comfortable winners of their races – each taking the 100m Breaststroke, Matt adding a 50m Freestyle for good measure – but it was great to see S.8 Michael Treston, making his West Mids debut, grab a silver and bronze in the 50m Backstroke and 100m Freestyle respectively
Many others in the team excelled too and there were lots of other Finalists including notably Pru Goodison (50, 100 & 200m Butterfly, 200 IM), Charlotte Ciancio (200 Back), Abigail Haldane (200 Back), James Hill (50 Back, 200 IM), Lincoln Lewitzkyi (200 Fly), Robert Gearey (200 Back), Toby Pugh (200 Breaststroke) and Ben Gooch (50 Free)
Above all, though, it was simply fantastic to have so many Worcester swimmers – 37 – 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…Xanthe Carrington-Abraham, Emily Clacher, Martha Colville, Hana Duncan, Wren Goodison, Freya Halsey, Jasmine Kilmartin, Jessica Owen, Thea Pickstock, Isabelle Thorn, Zoe Walsh, Carmen West, Elizabeth Wetherall, Julia Wolska-Bailey, Jacob Cutler, Joseph O’Leary and William Pridden