Over the last few weekends, a number of Wear Valley ASC swimmers have been competing in the Swim England North East Regional Swimming Championships.
The younger members of the Senior Group, Ava Race, Joshua Whitton and Romilly Staines got their first ever taste of regional swimming action over the 23rd/24th April, swimming in the Age Group Championships at the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds. Ava competed in 200m freestyle, achieving a new long course personal best (PB) of 2.45.56. She also swam on PB in the 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle, as well as competing in the 100m breaststroke.
Joshua also competed in the 200m freestyle, achieving a new PB of 2.47.08 and gained a new PB in the 100m backstroke, swimming in a time of 1.28.34. Romilly competed in the 50m freestyle, achieving a new PB of 32.01 and coming first in her heat, a great achievement having just come back from holiday the day before!
Over the 30th April/1st May, Senior Group swimmer, Annabel Cooper, competed in the Open/Youth Championships at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield.
Annabel competed in the 100m butterfly, 200m backstroke and achieved a long course PB in the 400m IM in a time of 5.27.92, which was enough to be the first reserve finalist. She also achieved a new long course PB in in the 200m butterfly, swimming in a time of 2.34.83 and again making first reserve finalist. Happily, Annabel managed to secure a place in both finals due to other swimmers withdrawing, however with them taking place within a few minutes of each other, she had to choose which final to swim in! She chose the 200m butterfly and came 10th in the region. Congratulations to Annabel on reaching her Open finals!
The final weekend of the Championships saw Ava, Joshua and Romilly in action once again John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds on the 7th/8th May. Joshua competed in the 200m freestyle, 100m and 200m backstroke, achieving long course PB’s in all 3 events. Ava competed in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke and the 50m and 200m freestyle, achieving long course PB in the 50m breaststroke and both freestyle events. Romilly swam in 50m and 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly, again achieving long course PB’s in all 3 events. Massive congratulations to all 3 of our young swimmers on their first NER’s!
Lastly a special mention and thank you to our Head Coach, Angela Callan, who has coached and guided our swimmers to a successful Regional Swimming Championships. This will be Angela’s last NER’s, as she steps down as Head Coach of WVASC. Whilst she will be still be around in a coaching capacity, we just want to say thank you for all you have done for the Club over the years, for the many hours spent on the poolside during the week and weekends, ensuring our swimmers perform to the best of her ability and have a chance to shine!
