Wow what a gala! What an amazing set of results for Wear Valley Amateur Swimming Club (WVASC). A total of 11 swimmers between the ages of 11 to 17 competed on the weekend of 15/16/17th October 2021 in a gala organised by the Borough of Stockton Swim Scheme (BOSSS) at the Billingham Forum.
There were many notable performances. Four swimmers, Emily Whitton, Ava Race, Daisy MulhollandĀ and Romilly Staines gained their first regional qualifying times. Emily gained a silver medal in the 200m Individual Medley (IM) and a 10 second personal best (pb) with a new time of 2.35.73. Emily also gained a North East Region (NER) qualifying time in the 50m freestyle (free) event, with a new time of 28.65 seconds together with a bronze medal. A 4 second pb, NER qualifying time and a bronze medal were also won by Emily in the 100m backstroke (back), together with NER qualifying times in the 50m back and 50m butterfly (fly).Emily also gained a silver medal and a 13 second pb in the 400m IM. Well done Emily!
Ava Race swam pbs in each of her 4 events and gained NER qualifying times in these events; 50m back, 50m free, 50m fly and 50m breaststroke. Ava took 7 seconds off her 50m fly with a new time of 39.74. Daisy Mulholland also gained regional qualifying times and pbs in both of her events, 50m back and 50m fly, taking 5 seconds off her previous time in the latter event with a time of 41.29 seconds. Romilly Staines also swam 5 pbs and regional qualifying times in the 50m free, 50m back, 50m fly, 50m breaststroke and 100m free. Romilly took 9 seconds off her 100m free time with a new time of 1.13.57.
There was a total of 43 pbs between the 11 swimmers. Other notable performances were Thomas Power swimming a new pb in the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1.12.89. Roberta Antonescu took 8 seconds off her previously held 200m back time with a new pb of 2.50.49. Joshua Whitton took 3 seconds off both of his events the 50m back and 50 free, Jessica Maughan took 2 seconds off her 200m IM with a new time of 2.37.27 and gained a bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke. George Anderson took 4 seconds off his 50m breaststroke gaining a new time of 39.95. Anne Marie Kelley took 3 seconds off both her 50m breaststroke and 100m free. Annabel Cooper took 5 seconds off her 400m IM and won a bronze medal in the 100m free.
The regional qualifying times gained from this competition, together with previously held qualifying times mean that WVASC will be taking 7 athletes to the North East Region Championships to be held at Pondās Forge, Sheffield on the 6th/7th November 2021. This is a remarkable achievement for such a small aquatic club! Well done to all of the swimmers who competed at Billingham, lots of incredible swims. Thank you very much to the coaching team at WVASC and to the event organisers.