Open meet season underway at Gloucester

Event: City of Gloucester Level 3 Open Meet Venue: GL1 Leisure Centre, Gloucester Date: 4th to 6th October 2013

Dolphin’s traditional short course season opener was again at the superb GL1 Pool in Gloucester.  A less experienced squad than usual attended with most looking to put county times firmly under their belts and any regional times would be a bonus.

Personal best performances flowed thick and fast from the Dolphin contingent with a 100% record of new best times from William Davies, Henry Pearce, Annie Ward, Ellen Hicken, Josh Fox and Kyle Greenwood.   Davies’ and Ward’s performances were particularly impressive as they swam a wider programme than most and made significant inroads towards achieving their regional qualifying times.  Agonisingly, Ward came within one percent of the mark on her 100m freestyle whilst Davies’ put on an excellent display of age group swimming with efforts equally as good across medley, freestyle and form events.

William Davies ~ a busy weekend in Gloucester

Dolphin’s youth swimmers fared slightly better than the younger age groupers in achieving regional standard swims.  Ellen Hicken went under the regional mark in the 200m backstroke and 200m individual medley while Andrew Cox’s increased commitment to training is starting to pay off as he made his consideration time in the 50m backstroke and came close in the 200m individual medley and 200m backstroke.

In the medal places, Henry Pearce almost achieved a full house of gold in all events entered, denied by a disqualification on a backstroke turn.  His seven gold however confirmed him as the top 9 year old boy.   Oscar Pearcey’s two silver and three bronze were enough for him to earn overall second place in his age group, as was William Davies’ gold and two silver.  Other Dolphins finishing in the overall top 10 were Annie Ward (2 gold, 2 silver), Amber Davies (gold, silver) and Samuel Elliott.   Other Dolphin medallists were Leo Ng (gold, silver), Lucie Wells (silver) and Ellen Hicken (2 bronze).