Coaches Report – Age Group Regional Championships 1st Weekend

10 swimmers from Ledbury & District Swimming Club travelled to Coventry Sports Centre for the first weekend of the Age Group Regional Championships. The club competes in the midland region which takes in clubs as far afield as Lincolnshire and Derbyshire.

The first swim of the day was the 10/11yrs 100m breaststroke in which Lucas Dewe and Sam Hall set new personal best (PB) times and rose up the rankings to finish 6th and 11th respectively.

Next up was the boys 400m medley relay team of Tom Harris, Peter Crocombe, Brad Willson and Alex Middleton who managed to finish 8th in a time of 4:48.00 just 2 seconds behind the City of Birmingham team. With Rob Thomas taking the place of Tom Harris for the 400m freestyle relay the team came in 12th in a very competitive race finishing 10m ahead of local rivals City of Hereford.

Lucas Dewe and Elliot Heath both recorded significant PBs in the 400m individual medley and the 200m freestyle. Lucas’ swims placed him firmly inside the top 10 in the Bagcat standings. Bagcats are a points system which encourages and rewards swimmers who qualify on multiple events. This is also used for selections onto regional training programs.

Calypso Harvey continued the fine form from the clubs swimmers with new best times in the 400m freestyle and 200m backstroke placing her inside the top 25 in both events.

Last swim of the weekend for Lucas was the 100m backstroke in which he was joined by club mate Callum Berry, another member of a very strong age group for the club, where both boys achieved new best times.

Bradley Willson scored a massive long course PB in the 200m IM, whilst team mates Alex Middleton and Peter Crocombe finished of the weekend with strong performances in the 100m freestyle.

There was an added bonus for three of the swimmers Lucas Dewe, Alex Middleton and Bradley Willson, as they received news that they had been selected to represent the county at the Three Counties Gala being held later this month at Gloucester.

In summary head coach Chris Treanor commented "I have been very pleased by the swimmers efforts. 13 out of 15 events produced new personal best times and they have really developed their skills around the starts and turns. Hopefully next weekend will be just as good."