Ledbury Swimmers Hit Form at Worcester County Championships

Ledbury & District Swimming Club showed continued improvement at the second weekend of the county championships in Wolverhampton. The clubs swimmers showed strong evidence of the technical improvements they have made, particularly around the start and turn skills.

Mens junior captain backed up victory in the 13 years 1500m Freestyle with a convincing win in the 100m Individual Medley while other medals in this event went to Sam Hall, Lucas Dewe (both 10 years) and Tom Stokes (17/over).

The next event was the Womens 200m Breaststroke in which Hannah Casewell record a new personal best to take 2nd just ahead of teammates Leah Heath and Dani Fitzgerald – third and fourth respectively. Medals also went to Lucy Stokes (15/16yrs) and Charlotte Hall (9 years).

There then followed a huge wave of personal best swims in the Mens 100m Butterfly, including 2 seconds off for Brad Willson (14 years) to take silver, and the Womens 50m Backstroke in which debutants Charlotte Hall and Lauren Freestone both made their age group final.

It turned out to be a good weekend for the Hall family with Charlotte winning her first county title in the gruelling 400m Individual Medley whilst older brother Sam won the 200m Freestyle and the 200m Breaststroke in a time which qualifies him for the Midland Regional Championships in June. Also making the regional qualifying mark were Lucas Dewe, Elliot Heath, Calypso Harvey, Lucy Stokes and Tom Stokes, with a further 5 swimmers within 1% of the mark.

In a long weekend of racing the final tally showed a total of 40 medals for the club in age group events and over 100 new personal bests. With one more weekend to go Ledbury are in 7th place in the club standings only behind some of the bigger city squads.

Reflecting on the weekends results head coach Chris Treanor had this to say: “Overall I am pleased with the efforts shown by our swimmers. The technical work they have put in has really made a difference which has been noted by other coaches from around the county. It is important that we build on these swims and learn for the future so that, as a club, we can challenge the dominance of the Birmingham based clubs. There is a huge amount of talent progressing through the club and I have no doubt that over the next 12 months we will see a further improvement in quality and results.”

The 31 swimmers who have qualified for this years championships are as follows: Charlotte Hall, Ariana Davison, Lauren Freestone, Matthew Thomas, Poppy Park, Elliot Heath, Eric Harris, Harry Bloxsome, Lucas Dewe, Sam Hall, Mollie May Parsons, Isabella Dewe, Sophie Green, Elizabeth Thomas, Calypso Harvey, Penny Green, Beth Hiley, Rob Thomas, Morgan Crosshoare, Alex Middleton, Peter Crocombe, Hannah Casewell, Dani Fitzgerald, Leah Heath, Tom Harris, Bradley Willson, Alice Quigley, Lucy Stokes, George Parsons, Tom Stokes And George Bennion.