The Long and the Short

The first session of the 2010 Wiltshire County Championships took place last weekend at Bath University’s long course pool with the boys’ 1,500m freestyle and girls’ 800m freestyle.

Elizabeth Beckett retained her 800m freestyle championship title after a close race with Salisbury’s Hannah Drewett. Beckett just had the edge over her rival, taking victory on the touch by less than one second. Charlotte Pitts also swam to a junior championship silver as well as an age group gold, with fine swims from Victoria Tainty, Georgina Pitts and Victoria Jennings also earning them a silver each in their respective age groups.

Elizabeth Beckett ~ Wiltshire Girls 800m Freestyle Champion 2010

In the longer boys’ event, a superbly paced swim from James Clark saw the 14 year old work his way up from fifth place in the early stages to a well deserved Championship bronze in a new club record time of 17:28.76. There were also age group medals for Alex Chantler (gold) and Matthew Sambrook (silver).

Moving from the longest to the shortest event on the county calendar, the following day was the traditional Wiltshire sprint competition held at the 36 2/3 yard pool at Milton Road.

Beckett was again the most successful Dolphin swimmer, sharing the women’s breaststroke senior championship title with Salisbury’s Gabby Pountney after a dead heat in the final.  Salisbury also featured prominently in the men’s breaststroke final; Sam Pountney taking the title from Dolphin’s Nigel Masters and James Clark in the lower medal positions with Clark’s time also earning him the junior championship. The women’s butterfly championship final saw Sam Berry finishing with a sliver and Victoria Jennings just missing out on a championship medal in fourth, although the girl’s times were rewarded with junior championship gold and bronze respectively.

Other top age group Dolphin medallists were Joanna Farley (3 gold, 1 bronze), Emily Dixon (2 gold), James Watson (1 gold, 3 silver), Georgia Dicks (1 gold, 2 silver), Niall Westman (1 gold, 2 silver), Charlotte Pitts (1 gold, 1 silver), Victoria Tainty (1 gold, 1 silver), Conor McGilligan (1 gold), Matthew Sambrook (1 gold).

In the mixed 8 x 1 length medley relay events, Dolphin showed their strength in depth by winning both the junior and senior titles by a clear margin.

Full results from both meets are available on the Competition Page.