Great Performances at NW Winter SC Regional Championships

North West Winter Regional Swimming Championships

Liverpool, Wavertree Pool – 5th/6th November 2016

The North West Winter Regional Swimming Championships were held in Liverpool’s Wavertree Pool this weekend.  To qualify for this event, swimmers must achieve qualifying times within a certain window as stated by the North West Regional Swimming Committee.  The Winter Regional Championships are ‘Short Course’ which means that the event takes place in a 25m swimming pool.  At this event, swimmers are aiming to achieve qualifications to progress onto the ASA Winter Short Course National Championships which take place this year in Sheffield mid December.

This competition was unfortunately disrupted with a number of issues, including the Main Scoreboard not being in use which made it extremely difficult for the spectators to know who was in the pool and what times they had swam. But also, during Session 1 an issue arose with one of the starting blocks which proved to be a headache for the organisers.  The event at one point was almost abandoned, however, the solution ended up meaning that the majority of events were swam as a Heat Declared Winner.  This meant swimmers literally only had one attempt to get their best swim in, as there would be no finals run for any events after Session 2.

Pioneer 79 Swimming Club had 25 swimmers taking part at this event, achieving numerous impressive swims between them including an ASA Winter Short Course National Qualification Time by 15 year old Elodie Smallwood in the 400m Individual Medley, her time of 5.04.16 secured her second qualification time to go alongside the 200m Butterfly, which will see her compete in both events in Sheffield this December.

The competition was split into two age groups, 16 & Under and 17 & Over, with separate entry times for each age group.  The times are difficult for any swimmer to achieve, so it was very pleasing to see two 12 year old Pioneer 79 swimmers at the starting blocks; Beth Hartwell achieved a qualification time for the 50m Freestyle; slightly disappointed with her swim of 31.09, she is even more determined to return next year aiming to achieve further qualification times.  Our other 12 year old swimmer was Ella Williams, Ella achieved a qualification time for the 50m Backstroke, her time of 33.38 was over half a second faster than her previous personal best time, finishing 31st in a field of 60 swimmers, so she too will be aiming for more times next year.

Other outstanding swims included the nail biting swim off between Pioneer’s 15 year old Kara Pedley and Ulverston’s Nicola Capstick in the 16&Under 50m Freestyle.  Having both achieved personal best times in the heats (28.41), a swim off was then required to decide who would be second reserve for the final.  Kara, who has become a consistently excellent freestyle sprinter, achieved a phenominal result under the pressure of the situation, touching first in a time of 27.68, knocking almost another second off the time she set in the heat.  Unfortunately, she was not required to swim in the final, however the time she posted in the swim off would have been fast enough to take the bronze medal.

Others included: Caitlin Armstrong in the 200m Butterfly, her time of 2.35.04 knocked almost 3 seconds off her previous personal best time which is an extremely pleasing result.  We had 2 swimmers, Ben Martin and Jack Hardman who both in the 200m Freestyle broke the 2 minute barrier for the first time!  Ben’s time of 1.58.79 was almost a 4 second personal best, whilst Jack’s time of 1.59.54 was also a 2 second personal best time.  Ben Turland set himself a handful of new personal best times, however, his time of 4.20.79 in the 400m Freestyle was over 16 seconds faster than he had ever previously swam this event!  Ellie Perris had a great swim in the 200m Individual Medley, knocking 3 seconds off her pb, and breaking the 2min 30 barrier for the first time!   Charlotte Dunn’s swim in the 200m Breaststroke (2.48.84) was another great swim, almost 6 seconds faster than she has swam this event in the last 12 months, and a 2 second personal best.  There were so many strong swims from our swimmers, it is impossible to list every one of them.  Head Coach, Mike Wilson was very pleased with the results, however had the event been run as it should have been (including heats and finals for each event), perhaps there would have been even more outstanding results to mention.  Under the conditions they were presented with, every swimmer gave 100% and they should be all extremely proud of their achievements.

 
25 Swimmers
4 Gold
Ben Martin – 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle
Elodie Smallwood – 400m Individual Medley
Meghann Leaver – 400m Individual Medley

4 Silver
Eleanor Collin – 50m Breaststroke, 100m Breaststroke
Ben Martin – 50m Butterfly
Meghann Leaver – 800m Freestyle

5 Bronze
Elodie Smallwood – 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle
Meghann Leaver – 200m Individual Medley
Ethan Naisbitt – MC 50m Freestyle
Arran Bostock – 200m Backstroke

Pioneer 79 NW Regional Qualifiers were:
Joe Murray, Elodie Smallwood, Leah Williams, Simone Ellson, Ellie Perris, Ben Marting, Jack Hardman, Ben Turland, Ben Makin, Ethan Naisbitt, Arran Bostock, Kara Pedley, Isabel Cockerham, Ellie Ward, Charlotte Dunn, Beth Hartwell, Eleanor Collin, Olivia Nicholls, Meghann Leaver, Ella Williams, Charlotte Collin, Tom Perkins, Caitlin Armstrong, Ben Gibbs and Abi Murray.