KELLY College swimmers got off to a great start on the first day of the South West Championships, held at Millfield School recently.
In the 17 and over 400m freestyle, Matthew Henry won gold in 4mins04 .90secs. Matthew is training hard for the Commonwealth Games trials later this summer and produced a great swim.
Blaine Small, 16, won silver in the 400m IM in 5.09.29. Blaine, like Matthew, is preparing for the Commonwealth trials and produced a solid performance.
Mark Sammut swam true to form, setting a new Maltese national record in the 100m backstroke in 1.02 .88.
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On day one of the event Kelly swimmers achieved eight national qualifying times and 11 finalists including Matthew Henry (1), Blaine Small (3), Mark Sammut (1), Patrick Blake (1), Cameron Brodie (2), Lawrence Oxborough (2) and Bruce Trail (1).
Day two again started well with Ben Walsh winning gold in the 17 years and over 800m freestyle in 9.01.64. The big breakthrough of the weekend came for Charlie Bayliss who fought his way to gain his first national qualifying time in the 200m butterfly. Charlie repeated his performance in the final to win silver and improved his time to 2.15.65.
Rachael Bennett worked her way through the field to hit the front with 50m to go in the final of the 16 years and over girls 200m freestyle. It was an amazingly close race between Kelly, Millfield and Gloucester. With very little separating the swimmers Rachael finished in bronze.
On day two Kelly swimmers achieved three national qualifying times. finalists included; Blaine Small (3), Charlie Bayliss (1), Rachael Bennett (1), Ben Walsh (1), Mark Sammut (1), Lawrence Oxborough (1), Patrick Blake (1) and Bruce Trail (1).