OKEHAMPTON Otters Swimming Club members were in action again on the last two weekends of the Devon championships. As in the previous swims the competitors achieved some creditable results.
The youngest to swim this year was Matthew Westlake. He gained one qualifying time in the 11 years 50m breaststroke. There are no finals in the 50m events this year in the age groups so Matthew went out fast and took his chance well to record a new pb swim to finish in fifth place.
Four girls qualified for their respective 50m freestyle age groups.
Charlotte Rowe swam in the 12 years age group and came home in eleventh place. Becky Rowe swam in the 13 years age group and was placed eleventh. She also competed in the 50m backstroke event. Always putting 100% into her swimming she finished in seventh place. Both these times were fractionally off the pbs she set a week before.
Vicky Medlyn, 13 years, finished just above Becky to come in at tenth position. Vicky?s other events were the 100m fly where she was ranked in the top six to swim an afternoon final. Erasing three seconds from her entry time Vicky finished fifth in a new club record time. Lastly it was the 4x25m individual medley where you need four good strokes to compete at this level. Vicky managed ninth place in a club record time.
Jenny Rice also swam in the im in the 17/over ages and bettered her entry time by two seconds in a time fast enough to make the championship final. This final consists of the fastest six swimmers on the day from all age groups. This was the first time an Otter club member had achieved this accolade. In this final Jenny finished in sixth place.
In the 17/over final she lowered her time again to swim solidly, gaining stroke by stroke. She was pipped into second place by just three tenths of a second by Kate Veale, Devon?s swimmer of 2002 who has European and British records in masters swimming.
Jenny continued her good championships by gaining fourth place in the 100m fly final and a fourth in the 50m free. All of these swims were pbs and club records.
Girls? captain Johanna Cade swam the 16 years 50m backstroke, recording a club record to finish in another fifth place for the club.
Lastly, Janek Jachnik competed at the 50m and 200m breaststroke events for 14 year olds and cut four seconds from his previous best in the 200m to make another final. Here he came home with a fifth place and a club record time. In his 50m swim he went from the gun in determined fashion and erased two seconds from his previous best to gain a seventh place and a club record swim.
The club came away with 18 club records and more than 21 personal best times. 1x2nd, 3x4ths, 7x5ths, 1x6th, 3x7ths, 7 other top 10 placings and 5 top 15 places.
Coach Nigel West said: ?The swimmers who competed this year have done brilliantly to swim to the standards that they have. They have worked hard since January and the rest of the club thank them for putting the time into going to these events.
?This has capped a rewarding two months for the Otters. The club finished 12th out of 18 in the Devon club championships, the above results are tremendous, numbers are growing and on a personal front I have gained the ASA club coach certificate.?
It is intended to hold a RLSS bronze medallion course starting after Easter. Anyone interested can ring Nigel on 53431.