Matthews flies into Nationals

Event: Cardiff International Open Meet Venue: Cardiff International Pool Date: 7th to 9th June 2013

Lauren Matthews increased Swindon Dolphin’s presence at the forthcoming ASA National Youth Championships by achieving her national qualifying time in the 200m butterfly at the City of Cardiff International Open Meet last weekend.  Dolphin now have seven swimmers competing across ten events at the championships that take place at Ponds Forge, Sheffield during July and August.

Matthews was part of an 11 strong Dolphin squad at the Cardiff meet which was the last chance for swimmers to achieve national qualifying times.  Having consistently moved closer to the required 200m butterfly time throughout the year, Matthews put in a determined a effort at the start of the race although by the 150m mark was fractionally behind her target pace.  However, a strong work ethic in training ensured her ability to increase the pace on the final length and touched home in 2:26.00; the precise time required for qualification.

Lauren Matthews ~ 200m butterfly national qualifier

Also competing were two of Dolphin’s other national qualifiers, James Clark and Jon Audis.  Clark got off to a superb start with his opening swim where he recorded a lifetime best and new club record of 24.04s in the 50m freestyle.  The time ranks him within the top 10 nationally for his age group and making the final at this years championships is now a real possibility.  Audis meanwhile was looking to achieve the 50m backstroke national qualifying time but could not find the form that saw him achieve the 100m time at Millfield in May, and will now therefore look to focus his training on the longer event in the lead up to the nationals.

Mathew Sambrook has broken the 400m freestyle club record twice this year already and made in three in a row with an impressive 4:15.55 in the event.  Other personal best swims in the 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 100m butterfly rounds of a successful long course season for the 17 year old who must surely be looking to continue improvements on his middle distance freestyle events next season where his times have crept slowly but surely towards the national standard.

Liam Jefferies main event of the weekend was the 1500m freestyle having seen some significant drops in his times over the past few years. Although Jefferies would have been disappointed in his previous regional championships swim in May, he impressively bounced back at this meet with a performance that brought him within a few percent of the national mark and continued focus on his training program should reap rewards next season.

The Dolphin contingent maintained a strong presence throughout the meet, with final appearances from Lauren Matthews, James Clark, Jon Audis, Matthew Sambrook, Charlotte Gardo and Beth Crouch.  Podium places proved hard to come by, with James Clark Dolphin’s only medallist with silvers in the 50m freestyle and 200m breaststroke.