Best times broken (From Penarth Times)

Best times broken

EVERY year Penarth Swimming Club runs its Annual Championship events - with the long distance events held on consecutive club nights and the short and middle distance events held over a weekend.

These events are an important period in the swimmers' calendar and offer a chance for all swimming members of the club to take part in races at their own level.

The events are designed to be fun, to give a chance to experience competition in a supportive and familiar environment and to monitor their improvement from the previous year.

And improvement there was at this year"s event held recently at the Cogan Leisure Centre.

With the introduction of the 400 Individual Medley (100 metres of each stroke) and the 400 metre Freestyle events there was always going to a bit of added interest!

The championships got off to a fine start with the first of the new events. The 400 Freestyle produced an extremely tight finish, Charles Phillips winning by a fingertip from Tim Miller.

Club Captain Richard Black won five gold medals and demolished the 200 metre breaststroke record, set in 1994, thereby winning the trophy for breaking a club record by the greatest amount as well as the Age Group Champion award.

The Iron Man event and the 400 metres Individual Medley were won by Charles Philips and Hannah Bates respectively.

It was particularly pleasing to see the swimmers showing confidence as they willingly embraced these new events, a confidence borne of the new, recently introduced training regime

Not to be outdone, the junior swimmers swum particularly well, not least Annes Lloyd.

Annes won all five of her events, set three championship records in the Girls 9 and under category and won her Age Group Champion award. In the same age group, Sophie Preece and Annabel Davies swum particularly well, achieving personal best times in all their events.

A total of 38 personal best times were set in the 9 and under and the 11 and under age groups, a testament to the benefit of the quality of teaching and coaching they"ve received during the last year.

Nine and under champion Iestyn Penry-Williams proved he"ll be a force to be reckoned with as he won four golds whilst being pushed hard by some equally outstanding swims from Alasdair Mackinnon.

Respective age group champions at 11 and under, Amy Wright and Sam Clements showed well but there is strength in depth within this group particularly. Bronwen Swain, Jessica Clements and Olivia Davies all showed much improvement as they swam personal best times as did Alex Baston, and Rhys George.

In the 13 and under group Sam Clements complimented sister Jess"s improvement and made it a family affair as he won four of his individual events on his way to becoming Age Group Champion. It"s evident that he won"t have it all his own way in the future as Rhys Penry-Williams and Tom Williams put in some sound performances.

In the same age group, Fran Bowerman and Alice Davies slugged it out over two days competition, Fran winning the her third event out of five to reap the coveted Age Group award; Alice will in the hunt next year! Equally pleasing however, were the performances of Leena Ahmad and Rosie Troth, not necessarily medal winners but quite definitely personal winners as they improved on previously recorded times with a fine showing of competition and application.

The same could be said of the brother and sister combination of Luke and Ama Hughes in the 15 and under group. Luke surprised many, including himself as he won the 100 metres Freestyle ahead of James Verdon and Dominic Jackson, but Dominic"s four individual wins made sure he was Age Group champion by the end of the second day"s competition.

Ama, like Leena and Rosie, may not have been a medal winner, but she showed fine improvement, swimming personal best times and her application in training has reaped its rewards in many ways. This commitment was recently recognised as she was the recipient of the Swimmer of the Month Award for April.

Jessica Adam"s commitment to training over the last year reaped its own rewards. Not only a winner of the 15 and under girls Age Group championship, she surprised many by making a clean sweep of the freestyle events, winning the 100, 200 and 400 metre races as well as setting a new championship best time in the 100 Butterfly event. In addition she placed second in the 200 breaststroke and the 200 backstroke events to complete a very satisfying personal performance and in the eyes of her peers, showing the greatest individual improvement over the year.

She didn"t have all her own way however, as Claire Lane (100 Backstroke) and sister Rachel Lane (100 Breaststroke) nipped in to win the shorter events.

With the senior swimmers also achieving 17 personal best times, the 16 and over boys was always going to be interesting. Within Club Championships, it"s generally recognised that certain swimmers will always win specific events. So it"s always pleasing when somebody springs a surprise!

Charles Phillips exceeded all expectations, but probably not his own, as he won the tough stuff - the 400 freestyle and 400 Individual Medley. Richard Black gave Tim Miller the fright of his life finishing just 100th of a second behind in the 100 metres backstroke whilst Will Williams, Josh Flynn, Richard Black (1st) and Gareth Thomas posted considerable personal best times in the 100 metres freestyle.

Tim, who has demonstrated equal commitment in training, showed his class in winning the 200 freestyle and 200 backstroke events.

So, at the end of a busy and successful championships, well done to the following Girls Age Group Champions:

9 and underAnnes Lloyd; 11 and underAmy Wright; 13 and underFrances Bowerman; 15 and underJessica Adams; 16 and overHannah Bates and Anna Verdon.

Well done to the following Boys Age Group Champions:

9 and underBen Baston; 11 and underIestyn Penry-Williams; 13 and underSam Clements; 15 and underDominic Jackson; 16 and overRichard Black

In addition, the following awards were also presented recently to swimmers at the awards presentation evening at the Sully Social Club; the culmination of at the end of what proved to be an extremely successful championships:

Breaking of a club record by the greatest amount: Richard Black

Breaking of a personal best time by the greatest amount and the recipient of the Philip Lane Memorial Shield: Claire Lane, who posted a 16 second reduction on her 100 metre butterfly swim.

And finally, the icing on the cake!!

Sarah James, formerly an age group swimmer with the Penarth Club and whose records at 13 and under level - set in 1988 - for both the 100 and 200 metre breaststroke events, remain unbroken. Coached by John Bennett, Sarah proved to be a prodigious talent and was the first girl from the Penarth Swimming Club to represent Wales.

Once Sarah moved out of the Age Group class, she continued to swim Masters and achieved much whilst swimming with Cardiff Masters, setting numerous Welsh records, some of which still stand. 2004 saw Sarah move to Melbourne, Australia where she continued to improve. In 2005 she set two Australian national records in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

She is currently ranked first in Australia in both the 200 metre and the 400 metre breaststroke, second in the 100 metre breaststroke rankings and sixth in the 400 metres freestyle - no mean feat in a country renowned for producing swimmers of world class quality!

Well done Sarah, how proud are we!!