2010 County Championships Final Weekend

Ledbury swimmers competed at Wolverhampton in the final block of the County Championships. Some gutsy racing produced 101 personal best times and a cache of 39 medals.

16 year old George Bennion won the junior championship trophies in both the 100m breaststroke and the 200m butterfly event with 17 year old teammate Tom Stokes winning the senior championship in the 200m Individual Medley and the 100m Breaststroke. Stokes also set a new record in the 50m Breaststroke event.

Making his first mark in the record book was 9 year old Sam Hall who swam an inspired 8 length Medley to win the gold medal in a new record time which was also fast enough to qualify for the regional championships. Joining him on the podium was Christopher Malone (silver) and Lucas Dewe (bronze). Eliott Heath was 5th. In the older age group Alexander Middleton swam a 3 second p.b. to gain his regional time. Lucy Stokes showed great fortitude to race with a broken finger and although unable to match her best time secured her Regional place with a qualifying time.

LADASC swimmers showed great improvement in the100m freestyle with Hannah Casewell, Calypso Harvey, Bethan Hiley, Elizabeth Thomas, Mollie May Parsons, Isabella Dewe, Peter Crocombe and Morgan Crosshoare all swimming new best times whilst Dani Fitzgerald and Alexander Middleton improved sufficiently to swim to their Midland Regional times.

Ten year old Isabella Dewe swam a terrific final of the 100 breaststroke to improve her Regional time. In the boys event Peter Crocombe had an outstanding swim to take the gold medal in a new best time, he then went on to win gold in the shorter 50m race. Other breaststroke medals went to Sam Hall (silver), Tom Stokes (silver), Mitchell Willson (bronze) & George Bennion (bronze).

The longest race of the weekend was the 400m freestyle – 16 lengths of the pool. Medals in this event went to Christopher Malone (gold), Lucas Dewe and Peter Crocombe (silver) and Hannah Casewell (bronze).

More medals came in the 8 length backstroke race, another gold for Christopher Malone, a silver for both Poppy Park and Lucas Dewe.

This concludes the Individual County Championships for 2010, the overall result for the Ledbury squad shows 210 new best times, 4 new records, 1 National Qualifying time, 26 Regional Qualifying Times, 86 medals and 63 swimmers reaching the top 6 places.

Younger swimmers are now defending the Wyvern League trophy – at present leading the championship with 2 more rounds remaining, whilst the older ones are concentrating on the forthcoming Derventio meet at Ponds Forge and the Gloucester Open Meet in an endeavour to gain the prestigious Regional Qualifying Times before the closing date in April.