Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for Guernsey Swimming Club at the Swim England Nationals, finishing the swimming season in style, Charlie-Jo Hallett picked up Gold in the 200m Breaststroke, Silver in the 400m Individual Medley and Sarah Whitchurch won Bronze in the 200m Freestyle.
Having already swam at Island Games and British Nationals, Charlie-Joe competed at the English Nationals having an incredible swim in the 400m IM knocking 12 seconds off his entered time, he took it steady in the 100m fly splitting at 1.02 placing 3rd working hard in the backstroke which is his weakest stroke, slipped down to 5th place. Then came the breaststroke, his number one stroke, working hard to gain lost ground he finished in 3rd place just a fraction behind the two lead swimmers, putting his head down Charlie-Joe had to work hard and in the final 15m managed to gain ground to take second place.
Having been ranked 11th in the 200m Breaststroke, Charlie-Joe put in a great swim in the heats in a new personal best time of 2.25.07 to go into the final in top spot. Having worked out a racing plan, Charlie-Joe stuck at it starting steady in his first 50 touching in 5th position on the first turn, beginning to pick up pace 4th in the second turn, working hard in the 3rd quarter, touched in 2nd for the last turn then sprinting hard to the finish in a time of 2:22.41 to claim his first national gold.
Charlie-Joe finished the meet with the 50m Backstroke finishing just outside his personal pest time in 14thposition. Making the final of the 200m IM, Charlie-Joe gave it his all finishing in a new personal best time of 2:09.74 in 5th place.
Sarah Whitchurch picked up a third medal for the Guernsey Swimming Club in Sheffield at the Swim English Nationals. Sarah still continuing to improve qualified for four events in the Multi Classification class gaining personal best times in all of her swims. Sarah qualified for all four finals with some impressive swimming.
Multi classification swimmers range from S1-S14 with the lowest number indicating a more severe activity limitation than a higher number who then compete in races to earn points calculated against the World Record in their classification. In the 50m & 100m freestyle races Sarah who is a S5 competed against a field of swimmer ranging from S5 to S14 to gain enough points to make the finals finishing 9th and 10th.
With the 50m Backstroke limited to competitors from the lower classifications S1-S5 Sarah was the only competitor and needed to break the British record to medal, although finishing in a new personal best time of 55.21 she was just 3 seconds off the record. Although disappointed she put this behind her and finished the meet on a high claiming third place and a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle shaving 4 seconds off her entered time to finish in a new personal best time of 3:50.50. Sarah will have another go at the British record in December at the Para Nationals be held in Manchester.
