PERSHORE Swimming Club members have enjoyed an impressive summer as four qualified for the National Summer swimming finals and two of them won medals at these prestigious competitions.
Hannah Woodcock, 14, was swimming in the British finals for the first time and swam brilliantly in the 50m freestyle to clock 27.42s – falling agonisingly just short of reaching the final as she came 11th in Britain. Woodcock also impressed in the 100m freestyle as she finished 17th in Britain.
The following weekend was the English Nationals at which in the 50m butterfly Woodcock delivered a sublime 29.42s in the final to take the silver medal having qualified in 20th.
Patrick Heeks, 15, on his debut at the Nationals performed brilliantly and in his first race – the 100m fly – he narrowly missed out on the final with 11th place in a time of 1:00.66.
In the 50m fly, Heeks cruised into the final in first place with 26.76s and then destroyed the field in the final with a sublime 26.60s to take the gold medal.
Sixteen-year-old Chris Vizard was also making his debut at the Nationals and did not disappoint as he qualified for the 100m and 200m fly.
His 100m fly time of 1.00.83 was a good swim and in the 200m fly Vizard came into the competition with a 2:17.70 personal best.
He simply tore the water up in the heats with 2:16.60s to qualify in fourth and in the final he produced a devastating swim to clinch sixth place with an impressive 2:14.84 which made it three personal bests at the Nationals in one day.
Alex Barry, 14, was making her first trip to Sheffield for the Nationals and qualified in contention for the 200m backstroke in which she set off superbly – turning at 50m in third, at 100m in second, 150m in fourth before just fading in such an intense race to come in 0.03s outside the final in 11th with an impressive time of 2:27.99.
Whilst representing Millfield School but a long-term ‘dual club’ member for Pershore, Simon Sweatman, 16, was also back at Sheffield for the British and English National championships.
Sweatman had another great championships, cementing himself in with the top swimmers in the UK. In the British Championships he recorded 50m fly, 27.19s (17th) and 100m fly, 1:00.83 (22nd) and in the English Nationals he clocked 50m freestyle, 25.28s (12th).
Pershore head coach Tom Naughton said: “I could not be more proud of how hard the swimmers have worked to qualify and then of their attitudes and performances competing in Sheffield.”