NER Success
The month of May bore witness to three action packed weekends of top-class competitive swimming from the North East Region Open and Age Group Championships, in which a squad of 30+ GAW swimmers excelled themselves. Congratulations to all GAW qualifiers who all performed to their best, picking up a multitude of personal best performances. In total the team was represented in over 40 finals and came away with an impressive 23 medals.
Kicking off the medal rush was 17yr old Zoe Price who grabbed a stunning silver medal in the Women’s Open 50m breaststroke, finishing with a new club record breaking performance. Continuing impressive team performances in the breaststroke events were 12 and 13yr olds Anna Finlay and Naomi Parker who both won gold medals in 200 breaststroke, Naomi triumphing in a new club record mark. Naomi also picked up a silver in the 50m breaststroke and claimed another club record time in winning the 13yrs 100m breaststroke, while Anna claimed another fantastic gold in the 12yrs 50m and a bronze in the 100m event.
The butterfly events proved equally successful for Team GAW swimmers, with pocket rocket Daniel Barrett joining the medal party, winning a bronze in the 12yrs 50m fly and following it up with a stunning gold in the 100m event. Naomi Parker was at it again, picking up a gritty silver in the 100m fly and following it up with a stunning gold in 50m. Naomi also picked up an excellent silver medal in the 200m fly, in a then new club record time. That mark would last a total of 3 minutes as 14yr old team mate, Ellie Houghton, broke the record yet again in the very next final. Ellie led for the majority of the race before just being pipped for gold,nevertheless achieving an excellent silver medal. She added another silver in the 50m event before capping off an excellent butterfly campaign with a superb gold medal in the 100m, smashing yet another club record in the process.
12 year old Daniel Barrett was at it again in the backstroke events, picking up a trio of medals. His haul included 2 bronze medals in the 100m and 200m events before smashing the 50m to win gold. Daniel also picked up silver and bronze medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle respectively, and finished off a tremendous campaign with a fantastic come-from-behind bronze medal in the 200m individual medley. 13 yr old Naomi Parker, dropping an incredible 10s off her entry time for the event, completed a breakthrough NER competition with a wonderful silver medal in the 200m IM in another club record performance, putting her firmly inside the top 3 in Britain for the event.
Congratulations to all medallists, finalists, and qualifiers who performed with style, endeavour, and no little skill.
National Qualifiers
I’m pleased to announce that several Team GAW swimmers have qualified for British or Swim England Summer National Competitions. Qualification times were achieved between March and the last weekend in May. British Nationals (the premier age group competition) is comprised of the top 24 ranked swimmers in each event. The Swim England tournament is comprised of the next 18 (English) swimmers on national rankings and takes place the week after British (Nationals.) All qualifiers and events are listed below:
British Summer Nationals
o Zoe Price: 17-18yrs 50m breaststroke
o Alex McGill: 15yrs 100m backstroke
o Ellie Houghton: 13-14yrs 100m/200m butterfly
o Naomi Parker: 13-14yrs 50m/100m/200m breaststroke
Swim England Summer Nationals
o Sarah Wright: 17yrs+ 50m butterfly
o Alex McGill: 15yrs 100m freestyle, 50m/200m backstroke
o Ellie Houghton: 14yrs 50m butterfly
o Naomi Parker: 12-13yrs 200m IM, 50m/100m/200m butterfly
o Anna Finlay: 12-13 yrs 200m breastroke
Massive congratulations to all qualifiers. Now the real hard work begins. Lets push on and put in lifetime best performances this summer when it really counts!! 😁