Dolphin Perform at Regional Short Course Championships

Event: South West Region Championships (SC) 2010 Venue: Millfield Date: 6th and 7th November 2010

This year’s Regional Short Course Championships took place at Millfield pool with Swindon Dolphin fielding a squad of 15 qualifiers at the two day meet.  The combination of the shortened long course pool and the opportunity of racing up against the best competitors in the region was always going to ensure a good weekend of swimming.

Jonathan Audis was on good form, reaching finals in all five events entered, winning silver in the 50m and 100m backstroke and bronze in the 100m butterfly.  Audis’ butterfly final time of 57.11 and 26.49 split at 50m also set two new club records.

Elizabeth Beckett’s form continues to improve as she retained her 200m breaststroke championship title, winning the final by a clear margin and also setting a new club record in a time of 2:34.76.

Having recently set new club records in both the 800m and 1,500m freestyle at this year’s Club Championships, James Clark swam a superb 1,500m freestyle to again set new club standards in both events.  Trailing Plymouth Leander’s Matthew Rose for the first 1,000m of the race, Clark‘s patience and clinical pacing eventually paid off as he eventually pulled away to take a well earned bronze and junior silver.  The 15 year old also earlier won junior silver and junior bronze in the 200m individual medley and 400m freestyle.

James Clark ~ two silvers, one bronze, two club records

Other podium finishes for Dolphin were Charlotte Pitts with a junior bronze in the 400m freestyle and Kath Baker with bronze in the 100m individual medley.  Baker also made the final in the 200m individual medley as did Louise Maynard in the 50m breaststroke.  There were also some impressive performances from Matthew Sambrook who made significant gains towards his national time in the 200m backstroke finishing a creditable 6th amongst the juniors.  Liam Herbert also came close to the national mark in both his 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly swims.

Dolphin finished fourth in the overall championship medal table, behind runaway winners Plymouth Leander and Millfield and Kelly College in second and third.  With such a good show of strength early on in the season and all Dolphin competitors swimming within the 2011 Regional Youth Championship qualifying times, their focus can now turn towards their ultimate goal of national qualification.

Full results are available on the competition page.