MAXWELL SWIMMERS WIN MEDALS AND SET NEW RECORDS
The first week in November was a busy one for Maxwell Swim Club with some of its swimmers competing at the South East Regional Winter Championships in Crawley, while others represented the Club at the Leighton Buzzard Invitation Meet
held at Aqua Vale in Aylesbury.
In respect of those at Crawley Head Coach Kevin Brooks said “For Maxwell this meet was an 'unrested’ meet to test the swimmers under the pressure of tiredness and fatigue. The swimmers events were to be swum with exceptional skill and a great competitive drive. The emphasis was not on gaining personal bests, although some did! Rory Kemp and Tom Smith were the stars of these Championships for Maxwell, both swam to their race plans and exceeded my
expectations of them. Rory won a Gold in the 800m Freestyle in a time of 8:53.24 and Tom improved on his lifetime best by some 23 seconds - now only 7 seconds away from qualifying for the Nationals.”
There were many other notable performances. Ollie Brewer had a great meet doing his best in the 200 Individual Medley, which he completed in a time of 2:21.73. It was a good solid performance and proves that all the hard work does pay off.
Julie Rampley won Gold in the 200m Backstroke in 2:22.40, a promising time for this early in the season. Emily Pritchard also did a great job in her 200 Backstroke, her main event, going faster than she had achieved at the Nationals in August 2007.
Sarah Powell and Sophie Elgar swam well in the 50m Freestyle, swimming lifetime bests, as did Jonny Quainton in the 100 Freestyle. The meet also saw Hannah Askew winning Silver in three events.
Meanwhile, as events were
unfolding in Crawley, three members from a team of Maxwell swimmers taking part at the Leighton Buzzard Meet came away with five new Meet Records. Emily Martin (10) obtained three of these in the 50m and 100m Freestyle and the 100m Backstroke. Aaron Lee (12) lowered the time for the 200m Freestyle and Sarah Turner (18) improved the record for the 100m Backstroke.
Maxwell Coach Bill Elgar said “The object of competitions at this time is to check progress against heavy early season
training and look to gain qualifications to higher level competitions. All those taking part today have shown that they are on the right track by either gaining their qualifying times or reducing their present personal best times in line with achieving those targets.”
With many of the older swimmers away at the Regional Winter Championships the Leighton Buzzard Meet also provided an opportunity for the younger members of Maxwell to take centre stage. Kieran Lindars (10) improved his
personal bests in all the five events he swam, whilst brothers Luke Scales (10) and Jake Scales (11) both lowered their times. Of the older boys Aarron King, Josh Turner, Tom Elgar and Liam O’Brien swam very well, in events they would not normally do.
The girls too put up some excellent performances. Sophie Baker (9) swam her first Open competition and was un-phased by all that was going on, to record a personal best in her 100m Breaststroke event.
Kerris Pattrick (10) had a good day, with personal bests from both her swims. Olivia Woodrow (10) joined the team for the afternoon session and really worked hard to match the others in the race for top girl. She really pushed hard and managed to gain four qualifying times for Counties early next year.
Overall Maxwell came fourth out of the 17 in the Team Competition, which was a highly creditable performance, given that so many of the more experienced swimmers were at the
Regional Winter Championships.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
