Hampshire County championships came to a close at the weekend with the conclusion of the 15 and over age groups. The event was held at Mountbatten Centre and should have been a long course event however due to a fault with the moving floor which meant that the pool could not be configured as a 50m pool. The competition was subsequently run as a Short Course competition and will appear in rankings as a level 2 meet, which was a disappointment to our swimmers who were looking forward to swimming long course, however their times are acceptable for region entry and have equal status to long course times.
Arriving at the airport to catch the lunch time plane to Southampton they were informed that the flight had been cancelled and that there were not enough seats available on the next flight for all the effected passengers, eventually we were re booked onto two flights which were then both delayed with some of the swimmer not arriving in Portsmouth till 11pm, not a good start to the weekend especially as the flight was only cancelled because it was not full.
Although the weekend did not get off with a good start the seven Guernsey Swimming Club swimmers produced some excellent swims with all of them making finals. Each session comprised of Heat Declared Winners (HDW) for the 200m and 400m events with Heats and finals for the 50m and 100m events. The meet produced some very competitive swimming pushing the Guernsey Swimming Club swimmers. Charlie-Joe Hallett excelled himself in the 200m breaststroke and the 200 individual medley taking gold in the 17+ age group also making 5 finals improving his times from the heats to win the silver medal in the 50m backstroke 27.63 and a silver and bronze in the breaststroke events in some very exciting close finals.
Sarah Whitchurch swimming as a S5 in the multi classification events won gold in all her events improving on her short course times and getting closer to the English record for the 50m backstroke. Meanwhile Laura Le Cras swimming in the 16 years age group made all her finals finishing in the top three for all but one of her events where she finished fourth. Laura had an outstanding 50m breaststroke final where she lead form the start touching first at the 25m mark using the underwater pull out of the turn to her advantage then work hard to keep her lead to touch first and improving on her time from the heats. Laura also took silver in the 50m butterfly, 50m & 100m Freestyle and bronze in 200m freestyle, 100m breaststroke & freestyle.
Team mate Samuel Lowe entered 10 events also made all his finals swimming in total 15 races, with a huge amount to do he has some great swims finishing just outside medal positions in his first 4 finals. Samuel pulled out all the stops for his last final the 100m butterfly just making the final with a time of 1:06.51 he got a great start in the final good underwater phase coming up in a good position, good turns helped him to maintain his position and keeping his head down with no breathing in the last 10m to the touch finished in 3rdplace. There were also some strong performances form Ronny Hallett and Kiia Walker who both made final and Issabelle Gaudion improving on their times gaining valuable competition experience.
Individual results:
Charlie-Joe Hallett 17+ age group
200m Breaststroke HDW 2:24.90 1st
200m Individual Medley HDW 2:10.45 1st
50m Breaststroke Heats 30.04 Final 30.48 3rd
100m Breaststroke Heats 1:06.47 Final 1:06.27
50m Freestyle Heats 24.55 10th
50m Butterfly Heats 26.80
50m Backstroke Heats 27.69 Final 27.64
100m Backstroke Heats 59.07 Final 59.11 4th
Laura Le Cras 16 years age group
50m Breaststroke Heats 34.09 Final 33.90 1st
100m Breaststroke Heats 1:17.19 Final 1:15.54 3rd
50m Freestyle Heats 27.34 Final 27.17 2nd
100m Freestyle Heats 59.93 Final 59.69
50m Butterfly Heats 29.96 Final29.26 2nd
50m Freestyle Heats 27.34 Final 27.17 2nd
200m Freestyle HDW 2:12.75 3rd
200m Individual Medley HDW 2:33.71 4th
Sarah Whitchurch S5 Classifcation all HDW
50m Backstroke 55.82 1st
50m Freestyle 49.51 1st
100m Freestyle 1:49.14 1st
200m Freestyle 3:53.79 1st
Samuel Lowe 15 years age group
50m Butterfly Heats 28.82 Final 28.39 4th
100m Butterfly Heats 1:06.51 Final 1:02.27 3rd
200m Butterfly HDW 2:20.60 4th
50m Freestyle Heats 26.92
100m Freestyle Heats 58.58 Final 56.68 4th
200m Freestyle HDW 2:04.38 6th
400m Freestyle HDW 4:33.51 8th
100m Backstroke Heats 1:05.01 Final 1:04.91 4th
200m Backstroke HDW 2:19.75 4th
200m Individual Medley HDW 2:23.73 6th
Kiia Walker 15 years age group
50m Breaststroke Heats 38.24 Final 38.21
100m Breaststroke Heats 1:22.24 Final 1:23.23 27th
50m Butterfly 32.35 13th
50m Freestyle 28.87 12th
100m Freestyle 1:03.55 16th
50m Backstroke 33.08 14th
100m Backstroke 1:11.70 14th
200m Backstroke 2:35.90 16th
Ronny Hallett 15 age group
50m Breaststroke Heats 34.00 Final 33.65 7th
100m Breaststroke Heats 1:15.02 Final 1:15.59 7th
200m Breaststroke 2:44.38 7th
50m Freestyle 27.19 11th
100m Freestyle 59.95 12th
50m Backstroke 31.74 11th
Isabelle Gaudion 17+ years age group
50m Backstroke 32.05 11th
100m Backstroke 1:10.46 9th
50m Freestyle 29.52 16th
100m Freestyle 1:04.70 17th
50m Butterfly 32.42 15th
