Skipton Swimmers Strike gold in the County Championships

This was the last time that this competition was to be competed in at Leeds International Pool. With the new pool on the other side of the city centre nearing completion the swimmers will be grateful to move to a deeper, faster pool in September. It was not going to be a fast times that won the races and the medals rather the toughest swimmers wanting the glory that would win.

Again, the Skipton swimmers did the little Dales town proud, with a medal haul greater than last year it shows that out talented age-groupers are growing up and managing to tackle the Senior/Junior Yorkshire Championships with confidence.

With a total of 3 Gold's, 2 silvers, 4 bronzes and 11 other top 10 finishes the swimmers produced some good personal bests and challenged competitively for the medals.

Two of the gold's went to Julia Scrivin who secured one of them in the 50 backstroke (junior category), where she is now placed 1st in the National ranking released this week. Her time of 32.69 was slightly slower than last week's swim but with no pads for her to get a good start she did well to produce such a quick time. Last week's time of 31.61 also secures her a Senior National swim in July. She also won a bronze as well for the same event in the senior women's category. Her other gold came in the 100 back (junior), having qualified as the fastest she was pushed by two of the country's fastest seniors and had to settle for a bronze in the senior's. Her other races also produced medal winning swims - silver in the junior 200 Back and another junior bronze in the 50 butterfly.

The last gold went to Alex Belk in the 400 Medley. Having had a disappointing swim last week he was back on his old territory. He knew his rivals strengths and weaknesses and swam his heat swim very strongly from the opening 100m of butterfly. Going into the final he was confident of producing a better pace of swim and went out slightly slower to allow more speed on the end portion of the race. The tactic worked - his winning time of 4.52.97 was 1.5 seconds quicker than his heat swim and 7 seconds quicker than his swim the previous week at the Burns Open.
This will now place him just outside the top 10 in the country. With another 6 months to go to Nationals he is fast improving in this gruelling event. He also secured silver in the 200 Medley and two 5th places in the 100 Butterfly and 200 breaststroke events.

Hannah Robertshaw was the only other swimmer that captured a place on the podium last weekend. Her bronze medal in the junior 200 backstroke meant that Skipton filled 2 out of the 3 podium places in this event. Her time of 2.31.47 was slightly slower than her best mark but she left the nail biting finish to the 400 Medley instead. Having qualified into the final due to withdrawals from other swimmers she went into the medley final placed 12th. Racing in an outside lane no-one saw her creeping up the field going into the last 200m of the race. Traditionally slower at the latter portion of the race she produced her fastest ever last 200 to record a 4 second best time and just narrowly missed out on a bronze medal. Her time of 5.25.60 is only 1.8 seconds off a National time and she must now be confident of achieving this time at the forthcoming County age group competitions in a months time.

Other swimmers that deserve a mention are Abi Kerr who at the young age of 12 was competing in her first Junior Yorkshire. Making the junior qualifying time, which is set for under 15's was an achievement but she swam her 50 breaststroke (7th Junior) and 200 breaststroke (8th Junior) with all the confidence of an experienced older swimmer. Her times were best times and she will be looking to medal at the age groups next month. David Fong, who has only been in Performance Squad for a few months, produced a challenging 29.72 in the 50 free with Samantha Wellock and Annie Riley also competing in their free events managing solid times. Ellie Belk made a return to the water after illness producing good sprints in the teams.

Ellie Belk joined forces with Scrivin, Robertshaw and sprinter Annie Riley to compete in the 4 x 50 relays. Both team events produced personal bests for all the girls and gave them 7th in the medley team and 8th in the freestyle team.

Report By Coz Tantrum, Head Coach