Skipton Swimming Club
Only seven weeks has passed since the new swimming season started and already the swimmers had early season galas to compete at.
The Leeds Open Meet was utilised by a few to qualify for the upcoming North Eastern Regional Championships in November. Kelly Bucke and Rachael Scrivin both produced excellent early season best swims in the 200 freestyle with Rachael swimming to a 5 second best in the medley. Abigail Kerr, Alice Shearer and Sam Westcott swam to solid performances. Abigail has now qualified for Regional's in both the 100 & 200 breaststroke events securing fourth in both races.
Saturday night saw gala 7 of the Bradford and Districts 2006 Championships. A total of 6 Gold's, 2 Silvers, 3 Bronze and 2 other finalists was the tally at the end of the night. Two gold's to Alex Belk in the 200 Medley and 50 freestyle, with Abigail Rhodes, Abigail Kerr and Alice Shearer making a 1-2-3 in the 50 fly with Abigail breaking the 12 year old District record in a time of 32.59. Other gold's to James Dawson in the 50 fly, Samantha Wellock in the 100 back. The other silver to David Fong in the 100 free, who is competing in the same event next week at County Championships, and will be looking to repeat his time of 1min 3 secs. Kelly Bucke and Elliott Rhodes both secured bronzes in the 50 free events.
The highlight of the event was
the blue ribbon event of the Club Mixed Team Championships. With 8 swimmers
(4 male/4 female) spread across 4 ages Skipton rose to the challenge and finished
in first place, 50m in front of the 2nd placed team. Edward Haigh lead off
in a time of 30.39, Phillip Foster-Denison 33.09, Abi Kerr 33.29, Samantha
Wellock 30.97, Ellie Belk 29.94, David Fong 28.88, Jenna Chatburn 29.12 and
finally Alex Belk on the anchor leg in a time of 26.58. It was a truly awesome
team effort by all 8