Swimming Report Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd April 2007

Skipton swimming club swimmers were busy competing in two galas over the weekend, with the club squad swimmers competing at the second in the series of the Bradford and district galas on Saturday evening, and a select trio of performance squad swimmers making the trip to Harrogate on Sunday morning to compete in the open distance meet, and hopefully achieve those all important championship qualifying times.
There was a fine haul of medals for the Skipton swimmers at Shipley on the Saturday evening; the friendly rivalry between some of the youngsters in the club squad is beginning to pay dividends. Kieran Belk, was the first to strike gold in the Boys 10 yrs 25m Butterfly, turning the tables in the final on William Maddrell, who had qualified fastest in the heats, but took a silver medal in the final. This could have been a Skipton 1, 2, 3 had it not been for Josh Allen making a technical mistake in his heat and suffering the harsh reality of competitive swimming and disqualification. Lucia Gardner won a gold medal in the Girls 10 yrs 50m Breaststroke with Alice Riley narrowly missing out on a medal in 4th. Philip Foster-Dennison swam consistently to take a silver medal in the boys 100m backstroke, with Chris Brier finishing 5th and James Smith narrowly missing out on a final position finishing as reserve finalist. Adam Sayedi shows continued improvement in all strokes finishing 3rd with a bronze medal in the boys 11 yrs 100m Individual Medley along with Max Barker who was hot on his heels in 4th
Annie Riley put in a good PB to qualify 4th in the girls 14 yrs 200IM, but tired later in the evening and couldn't reach the medals in the final. Kelly Bucke was surprised to qualify for the final in the girls 12 yrs 100m breaststroke, this being one of her weaker events, and eventually finishing 5th with Olivia Bell finishing as reserve finalist. The boys 11 and 12 yrs Individual Medley team of Chris Brier, Phillip Foster-Dennison and Max Barker combined well to take a good second place and silver medal for Skipton in the final event of the evening.
Early on Sunday Morning Lucia Gardner, buoyed by her performance the evening before, was back in the water at Harrogate chasing a North Eastern region qualifying time in the 200m breaststroke. Lucia showed skill and maturity pacing her swim well to carve 10 second from her PB and qualify well inside the mark. Rachael Scrivin and Abi Kerr edged ever closer to their National 200m breaststroke qualifying times, both with a 2 second BP's and will be looking to impress at North eastern championships in June