Maxwell 21st Annual Open Meet (January 2005)
On the weekend of the 29th and 30th of January 2005, the Maxwell Swim Club hosted one of the best open meets in its 25 year history.
The 21st ‘designated’ meet was licensed by the amateur Swimming Association for entry into National Competitions and Championships. As such it attracted swimmers from some of the best swim clubs in the Southern and Midlands Areas.
The statistics of the meet were impressive – 31 clubs were represented and there were nearly 1200 swims. The level of competition was extremely high with an impressive 25 Meeting Best Times swum. A Meeting Best Time achievement means that no-one has ever swum better at a Maxwell open meet.
The level of competition clearly brought out the best from the home team. Maxwell swimmers achieved ‘top 6’ places no less than 118 times and came first in 35 events. The team, which had many younger swimmers competing, achieved an amazing 121 personal bests.
The older swimmers competed to their normal high standards. Craig Gibbons looked almost lazy as he swam the 17years and over 200m Freestyle in a Meeting Best Time of 1:50:60. This was almost 8 eight seconds clear of his clubmate and British Squad member Ed Downes, who also achieved a lifetime best in this event. Maxwell’s Rob Andrews was a close third in a Personal Best time, and forth place was again a Maxwell swimmer, Alec Morgan with, again, a Personal Best.
Head Coach Kevin Brookes said, ‘This meet is an important stepping stone for the older swimmers, but we also had some exceptional swims from younger swimmers this weekend’.
13 year old, Hannah Askew achieved a Meeting Best Time in the 13-14 years 50m Freestyle in a Time of 28.22 seconds, followed closely by Maxwell’s Natasha Mason who gained second place with 28.82 seconds.
Brookes was particularly impressed with the efforts of two of the youngest swimmers in the team. In the 10 year old event Anna Evison achieved four Personal Best times with an impressive 1st place in the 50m Breaststroke which she swam in 45.79 seconds. Likewise 10 year old Dominic Minihan achieved District Qualifying times in all of his four events, knocking a clear 12 seconds off his 200m Breastroke time.
During the next few weeks Maxwell swimmers will be competing in the County Championships where the club hopes to build upon these impressive performances.
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