Hereford Open Meet

23 Nov 2014

Ledbury swimmers had a very demanding but productive weekend competing in the Hereford Open Meet over the weekend. For many swimmers it was an exercise in endurance as they competed in morning and afternoon sessions on both days, bringing home a total of 54 medals.

Once again Captains, Ellie Ainsworth and Elliot Heath led by example with Ainsworth winning 5 silver medals and Heath winning 1 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals. More importantly they both achieved some new personal best times. Matt Thomas, Seb Roffey and Danny Kearley won 2 events each and also returned home with a clutch of silver and bronze medals and recorded new best times. Gold medals were also awarded to Bradley Williams
Lydia Freeman and Daisy Wood.

The younger Ledbury swimmers tackled their races with enthusiasm, making their debut Open Meet swims were Sofia Roffey, Hetty Meen, Francesca Henry-White and Sammy Palmer who overcame their nerves to manage great swims, without any disqualifications and some new best times. 10 year old Tom Birley swam particularly well to win a silver and 3 bronze medals all within next years County Qualifying Times and new personal best records. With team mate Danny Kearley who added breaststroke and backstroke bronze medals to his gold, they proved great inspiration for Ben Collins and Oscar Curtis also aged 10 who both gained valuable experience whilst recording new personal best times. In the 10 year old girls Emily Russell won a bronze medal in a hard fought four length backstroke race. 11 year old Daisy Wood added to her gold in the 200m butterfly with 3 silver medals in backstroke, breaststroke and 100m butterfly. William Kennedy also added to his rapidly increasing medal collection with 5 bronzes whilst William Hughes, Rosie Loraine and Robyn Munday showed great fortitude and focus in all their races and were duly rewarded with improved personal best times.

In the 12 years age group Daisy Kearley swam strongly to win the bronze medal in the 100m butterfly, Seb Roffey was on form with silver medal winning swims in breaststroke and freestyle and 5 bronze medals to add to his 2 golds all within 2015 County Qualifying Times. Eve Watson continued her recently improved form and finished in the top 6 in all her swims and won the bronze medal in the 8 length backstroke race. Lily Painter, Alice Russell, Charlotte Ainsworth and Malachi Cashmore proved the attention to detail in training is paying off as all recorded faster times than they have done before as did Bryn Batten, Jemima Stokes and Eleanor James in the 13 year old age category. Talesha Hunt was under pressure in the 14 year old events but battled through to take the bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events. In the same age group Lydia Freeman added two bronze medals in backstroke and freestyle to her freestyle gold medal, all in personal best times within the county standard for next year and Karla Alvear swam to a new best time. In the boys events Matt Thomas added a butterfly silver medal and a freestyle bronze to his collection whilst determined swims from Eric Harris and Jamie Hiley produced new best times in all their events. Lucy Stokes competed in the 16/over age group and won the silver medal in the 100m butterfly event in a County Qualifying time.
Head Coach Duncan Loraine commented – it has been a long weekend and the swimmers have not only coped and swum well but have been very supportive of each other. Although it is pleasing to see so many medal winners, at this time of year the achievement of personal best times and County Qualifying Times is far more important. I am particularly pleased to see swimmers excel at more than one stroke which I consider an important part of their development. This is a very well organised quality meet right on our doorstep which we try to support each year. This year it has proved a great experience for all our swimmers and has yielded 131 new best times the majority of which will make them eligible for the biggest event on our calendar, the Worcester County championships next March.

At the other end of the age spectrum 5 Ledbury Masters swimmers were selected to swim for the County in the West Midlands inter-county division held at Rugby. Viv Hewitt, Viv Jones, Niall Hall, Helen Preedy and Lucy Stokes helped Worcester County swim into third place. The masters train at 6.00 – 7.00 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Ledbury pool and anyone who is interested in coming along can ring Viv Jones on 01531 660692 for details.

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Ledbury, Swimming, Malvern, Hereford, Open, Meet, 2015, Results