NW Summer Regionals – Weekends 2 & 3
From our roving reporter Jayne Elliott
Over the weekends of 23/24th April and 30th April/1st May it was the turn of some of our younger swimmers to compete at the Summer Regional event in Liverpool – giving them an excellent opportunity to gain experience competing at a higher level at a long course meet.
Saturday 23rd saw 13 swimmers in action.
Johnny Wright swam in the 50 metre butterfly making the final and coming 6th. Megan Ellis, Kate Roberts and Olivia Ballard swam the 50 metre backstroke with Megan coming 7th in the final.
Sebastian Hailwood and Finlay Warburton swam the 200 metre freestyle followed by Kate Roberts, Emily Wade and Olivia Ballard who all tackled the 800 metre freestyle.
After lunch there was more action with Johnny Wright, Seb Hailwood and Tom Jepson racing in the ‘splash and dash’ 50 metre freestlye.
They were followed by the girls again – with Megan Ellis, Beth Adam, Kate Roberts and Emily Wade taking on 100 metre freestlye.
The 200 metre IM saw Rhys Pownall make his first regional final and finished 8th after also competing in the 400 metre freestyle.
The 100 metre breaststroke saw Beth Adam, Maiya Taylor, Emily Wade and Olivia Ballard all in action before it was time to go home, eat and rest up for the following day.
Sunday 24th April kicked off with Beth Adam, Kate Roberts and Emily Wade back in the water in the 200 metre freestyle. They were followed by Johnny Wright who made his second final of the weekend in the 50 metre backstroke finishing in 7th place.
Megan Ellis and Kate Roberts swam in the 100 backstroke and Sebastian Hailwood was back swimming in the 100 freestyle before Kate Roberts and Emily Wade competed in the 200 metre IM.
Last up on the Sunday afternoon was Rhys Pownall who ened on a high having had a fantastic day swimming another impressive time to make it into the 200 metre backstroke final and coming 6th.
Well done to all the swimmers competing – a good weekend with 15 pbs recorded and three swimmers making it into the finals.
The next weekend saw the final events of the competition take place.
Charlotte Middleton and Emily Wade started the proceedings swimming in the 100 metre butterfly followed by Maiya Taylor, Beth Adam and Olivia Ballard in the 200 metre breaststroke.
In the afternoon the boys were back with Johnny Wright and Rhys Pownall swimming the 100 metre butterfly followed by Maiya Taylor, Beth Adam and Emily Wade in the 50 metre breaststroke.
The final day saw the girls swim the 50 metre butterfly with Yasmin Elliott, Maiya Taylor, Megan Ellis, Beth Adam, Kate Roberts, Charlotte Middleton and Emily Wade all giving it there best shot. Beth Adam and Kate Roberts then managed to summon enough energy to get back in the pool to tackle the 400 IM before being sent to swim down and then having a well-deserved lunch break!
The final session saw Finlay Warburton and Rhys Pownall swim the 100 metre breaststroke before Megan Ellis, Beth Adam, Kate Roberts and Emily Wade all swam in the 50 metre freestlye.
Last event of the competition for our Barracudas swimmers saw Kate Roberts swim again – this time in the 200 backstroke.
The second weekend didn’t see our swimmers make it to any finals but another 10 pbs were recorded.
As they left Liverpool on Sunday I’m sure there were a few swimmers, coaches and parents looking forwards to a Bank Holiday Monday rest and recovery day with no swimming!!
Well done again to all the swimmers competing.