SIXTEEN Pershore Swimming Club members excelled at the Eindhoven Invitational International in Holland.
It was a fantastic spectacle as swimmers from the host nation, France, Germany, Belgium, Indonesia, South Africa, Ireland and four UK teams – Deepings, Louth, Redditch and Pershore – competed.
In the fantastic surroundings of the 3,000-capacity Pieter van den Hoogenband Arena, two galas were conducted simultaneously – the 9-12-year-olds in the 25m pool and 13+ in the 50m pool.
Pershore swimmers soon started churning out personal bests and it did not take long for some medals to follow but, against tough opposition and with some being at only their second meet, it was mostly about improvement and experience.
Leading the medal charge and PB-busting for Pershore was Bella Barry (12). Securing eight PBs in as many races was a great achievement.
Barry’s best came in the 50m butterfly with a superb swim of 33.02s to clinch the gold medal. She also went on to secure a silver medal in the 50m backstroke in 37.06s.
The younger swimmers were fantastic all weekend and virtually all of them delivered PBs in every race. Totally undaunted by the language barrier and the enormous venue, they competed in the 50m fly, 50m and 100m freestyle, 50m and 100m breaststroke, 50m and 100m backstroke and 100m individual medley.
Other Pershore youngsters included Nikki English (nine), Emma Taylor (nine), Frankie Barry (nine), Sophie Smith (nine), Tally Brown (ten), Jess English (ten) and Philippa Taylor (ten).
Over in the big pool, the seasoned and masters swimmers were limbering up. There were some real courageous swims from the swimmers, not least the two masters Andrew English and Simon Barry (slightly over the age of 25) who gave it their all in the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke.
Alex Barry (13) swam well all weekend to win six medals – five gold and one silver. Highlights for Barry were the 50m freestyle (29.18s) and 200m freestyle (2:17.34).
Izzie Cumming (14), swimming in the younger of a two-year age band, also came through with some good PBs and scooped two medals in the 200m freestyle (gold, 2:23.37) and 50m fly (bronze, 33.50s).
Alfie Brown (13) also had top swims over the weekend and secured a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke in a time of 3:12.67. He also came fourth in the 50m backstroke in 30.47s.
Emily Drayton (13) worked hard all weekend to deliver some good PBs and came very close to a medal with two fourth and three sixth places. In the last race of the weekend she swam a superb 32.76s in the 50m fly to secure a silver medal.
Ollie Smith (12) swam well and put down some superb butterfly PBs. Whilst not quite securing a medal, he managed 33.13 in the 50m fly (4s PB) and 1:17.17 in the 100m fly (9s PB).
PSC would also like to thank county councillors Adrian Hardman and Rob Adams for their support.
