SKIPTON SWIMMING CLUB PRESS REPORT
YORKSHIRE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
PONDS FORGE
17Th & 18Th MARCH 2007

With 1,954 days to the 2012 Olympics in London, Hannah Robertshaw continued to show her dominance in the County by securing her 2nd gold medal, this time in the 100 backstroke event. Her winning time of 69.61 demonstrated that she is in good form for the British Championships next week in Manchester where she will be competing against the fastest swimmers in the country. She added a National long course qualifying time in the 200 Medley to her name and finished 4th. She had to settle for another 4th in the 400 Medley. Improvement to her butterfly will need to be made in the latter part of the season if she is to secure another National time. Her biggest improvement came in the 400 freestyle where a big lifetime best saw her dip inside the 6 minute barrier for the first time ( 4.55.79), finishing in 8th place.

Rachael Scrivin captured her 2nd bronze medal of her County campaign and edge ever closer to her first ever National time in 100 Breaststroke. Her strong 2nd 50 metres saw her touch out her rival from City of Leeds by a fingertip to gain her medal. A 15 second best time in the 400 Medley showed that she is developing at a fast rate around all her strokes.

Ellie Belk again produced a handful of top ten finish in the 400 free (7th), 200 Medley (10th), 400 Medley (8th). Her 400 Medley gave her a good best time by 5 seconds. She will need to develop a stronger technical backstroke to gain a quicker and more balanced paced time. Her best finish position was in the 200 Butterfly on the Sunday. Her 4th place was achieved in a time of 2.44.35 which was a solid personal best time.

David Fong reaped the reward of a move into Performance Squad at Christmas and swam solid 100 freestyle to achieve a big lifetime best of over 3 seconds, in a time of 62.37 which saw him move his County ranking from 51st to 16th in the 14year old age group. This time also gives him a Regional North Eastern time for June 2007.

Carolyn Haworth produced 2 good medley swims in the 200 & 400 events and now seems to be developing into an all-rounder rather than the backstroker that she was originally stronger at. A 2 ½ second best in the 200 and a 1 second best in the 400 shows that as a relatively newcomer to the events she has great potential to do well over the next 12 months.

Lucia Gardner who only qualified for the County's at the last chance meet at the end of January swam a well paced 200 breaststroke producing the biggest improvement from all the Skipton swimmers. Her time of 2.46.22 was 25 second faster than her previous mark and gained her, her first Regional time for June 2007. Disappointment followed when results showed a disqualification for moving at the start. Alice Shearer was another swimmer to fall foul of the one start rule when she toppled in at the commencement of her race. She will have another opportunity to make amends when the squad return to Sheffield at the end of the month to swim in their second target meet of the 06/07 season.

In his only swim of the weekend Philip Foster-Dennison swam a controlled 200 backstroke to gain an improved time by 2.7 seconds and Sam Westcott swam solid 100 and 200 freestyle events after having a prolonged virus since the New Year. He was the last swimmer to compete this weekend. His 1,500 free was again another master class in pacing. Holding solid 1:24's throughout the middle portion of his race he then descended the last 200 metres, 1:21 then 1:20 finishing in a 20 second best time of 21minutes 3 seconds.

Next week sees the club return to Ponds Forge for the last weekend of County's when the sprints will be run on the Saturday and the teams on the Sunday. Monday 26th March is the start of the British Championships where Julia Scrivin and Hannah Robertshaw will be competing and hoping to gain the next milestone in their fledging swimming careers.

Report By Coz Tantrum, Head Coach