Sharks and Dolphin team up for Wilts
From
the archive, first published Wednesday 25th Oct 2006.
SWINDON
Dolphin and Tigersharks swimmers
both had 10 swimmers joining forces to represent Wiltshire in the National County
Championships at Ponds Forge in
Sheffield
.
Unfortunately,
Wiltshire just missed the cut by five points but both Dolphin and Tigersharks swimmers
put in some fine swims.
The star performer
in the Dolphin contingent was undoubtedly Andrea
Alleyne, pictured left, who jetted in from Turkey just
hours before the competition, to become the first Dolphin female to break the magic
one-minute barrier in the 100m freestyle, with a new Dolphin record of 58.55 to take
fourth place.
Elsewhere, Georgia
Dymoke (backstroke), Tilly
Gray (freestyle), Katie
Hall (breaststroke), Cathal
Westman (breaststroke) joined Alleyne in
setting personal best times.
In the relay
events Dolphin swimmers played a key part in securing two victories for the county.
In the boys’
12/13 years 200 metres medley relay, Dolphin’s Cathal
Westman (breaststroke) and Tim
Berry (butterfly) joined forces with Christopher
Weston and Sam
Clayton.
Wiltshire
made it back-to-back relay wins in the final event, the girls’ 14/15 years 200 metres
medley relay as Dolphin’s Georgia
Dymoke (backstroke) and Tilly
Gray (butterfly) combined with Alexandra
Warren and Natalie
Montezuma to close in 2:04.70 seconds.
Fourteen-year-old Dean
Williamson was third in the 14/15 100m butterfly in
1:01.84 and five races later was just seconds off a National Qualifying Time (NQT)
again in the 100m breastroke.
Sophie
Hawkins (13),
pictured right, swam a phenomenal race to win the 100m frontcrawl in a personal best
time and NQT of 1:00.48. She also clocked 27.80 on the final leg of the medley relay
for 50m frontcrawl.
Teammate Sam
Clayton (13) took two second off his personal best
time, going under the minute mark for the first time as he clocked 59.96.
He also produced
a great final leg in the 12/13 medley relay to bring the team home in first place
with a split time of 27.30.
Hayley
Wood (17)
was in top form when she produced a strong swim in the 100m butterfly to swim home
in a time of 1:09.23 and she topped this off with a 50m butterfly split time of 30.54.
The boys 14/15
medley team was made up entirely of Tigersharks swimmers.
The boys (James
Magness, Dean Williamson, Aaron Lee and Alex Jones)
were in outstanding form to take fourth place overall.
Jones (14)
was in his usual startling form as he produced his fastest ever short course time
in the 100m frontcrawl in a time of 54.86.
Jones also
racked up two 50m frontcrawl swims of 24 seconds in both the medley and cannon relays.
Natalie
Montezuma (15)
was in great form in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1:08.49 to help the girls
14/15 medley team home in first place.
Aaron
Lee (15)
swam a very strong 100m Backstroke to finish fourth in a new short course personal
best time of 1:02.36.
Rachael
Steel (17)
waited a long time for her swim in the 50m backstroke leg of the 16/17 medley relay,
produced her best-ever 50m backstroke time of 32.66.
Her strong
swim led the way for the team to finish third.