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Killerwhales Swimming Club competed against some very
talented southern clubs in the 8 lane 25m pool of the hugely
impressive Littledown Centre, the home of Bournemouth Dolphins.
Such quality facilities deserve to host quality competitions and
the Killerwhale swimmers did not disappoint and helped raise the
standards for the weekends demanding schedule.
Undoubtedly the most noteworthy performance was that of 10
year old Jodie Momodu who needed to improve her personal best by
1.5 secs in the 200m Breaststroke to gain the National Entry
time for 11 year olds. With older team-mate Robyn Beadel
alongside Jodie in her heat she had a marker to try to stay with
if she was to be drawn through to get that elusive time. A well
paced first 100m saw Jodie turn still on course, as the
competition warmed up Jodie stayed hard on the heels of Robyn
who was trying to improve her own best time, the last 50m would
be crucial for Jodie to get inside 2.36.38. With two turns from
home Jodie pulled up alongside Robyn and dug deeper to pull away
showing what great determination she has, over the final few
metres the encouragement coming from the section of Whales
supporters was deafening, as she touched the wall she
immediately looked up to see the timing board showing a time of
3.03.20 on realisation of her achievement she collapsed over the
lane rope in exhaustion her mother was equally exhausted but
welled up with joy and was strangely quite for a while.
Alongside this gold medal performance Jodie still had enough
energy to manage a fine bronze in the 50m breast, 5th
in the 100m breast and 6th in the 50m butterfly
additionally she took 3+secs off her 200m IM time when finishing
11th.
15 year old Kirsty Forbes won her 400m Individual Medley
much to the bewilderment of Bournemouth Dolphins announcer who,
after being in awe of her 100m butterfly commented that “. .
. she is probably not a back-stroker”. After Kirsty
increased her lead during the 100 metres of backstroke the
announcer told everyone that “. . .she must be a weak
breaststroker”, he was somewhat surprised to see her go
further away and decided not to pose the final question but
Kirsty gave the answer anyway, an equally impressive front-crawl
saw her emphatically win the event by over 20m, to which the
announcer commented her performance as being “immensely
impressive”. Kirsty added to her medley dominance by winning
the 100m event earlier in the day. Overall she had a very good
weekends swimming and whilst not lowering her previous best
times was consistently on time and managed a further three
silver medals, 400m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 100m
backstroke, a bronze in the 100m freestyle, two fourth places in
the 100m breaststroke and 100m butterfly were followed with a 5th
in the 50 free.
Boys Captain, Daniel Hime, (16 years) had a very busy
weekend and like Kirsty was not quite able to better his
personal best times but still managed to grab a number of
medals. His finest display saw him take gold medal in the 200m
breaststroke where he dominated his age group. He also took two
silver medals in the same stroke but the shorter distances of
50m and 100m. Over the same distances but in the butterfly
events he managed another two silvers and whilst taking a bronze
in the 200m. Dan managed two other bronze medals in the 400m
medley and 400m freestyle and 8th in the 50m
freestyle.
Another 16 year old and, Laura Andrews the girls
Vice-Captain gave the spectators a demonstration of her
all-round stylish stroke work when taking gold in the 100m
individual medley. Laura managed a bronze in the 100m butterfly,
4th place in the 400m medley, the 400m freestyle (in
a new best time) and the 200m fly plus she finished 9th
in the 100m freestyle.
16 year old Alice Scott was also gold medal performer
taking top honours in the 200m breaststroke event. Alice also
took two bronze medals in the other breaststroke events raced
over 50m and 100m, a sixth place in the 200m freestyle was
followed by an 8th place in the 100m freestyle.
Henny Andrews (14) took medals in each of the breaststroke
events, her best finish taking a silver medal was in the 100m,
she then took two bronze medals in the 50m and 200m races, the
later in a new personal best time.
Ellen Scott (13) had a good weekends swimming with 9 races
in total she took a bronze medal in the 200m breaststroke and
two 6th places in the 200m and 400m medley events all
of these were in new best times. She managed 4 other pb’s in the
50m freestyle (21st), 200m freestyle (22nd)
and 400m freestyle (11th) and 200m butterfly. The
other two races saw her finish 7th in 100m
breaststroke and 10th 100m butterfly.
Janine Rayner (15) had eight swims with her best
performances coming in her favoured breaststroke where she took
5th place in the 50m breaststroke and then went one
place better to finish 4th over 200m, she finished
well placed in 7th over 100m. Janine also managed an
8th place and 16th place in the 200m and
100m medley events.
Lauren Andrews look very strong in finishing 6th
place in the 100m butterfly event, she like many of her
team-mates had a hectic schedule but proved her stamina is
returning with some very creditable performances. Lauren managed
a 7th place in the 50m fly, took 9th and
12th in the 200m and 100m medleys, 11th
and 16th in the 50m and 100m breaststrokes, and set a
new personal best in the 50m freestyle.
Molly Scott (10) best finish was 6th in the 50m
breaststroke, in her only other races, 200m breaststroke she
finished 17th.
With ten races Daniel Bleach (14 years) hardly had time to
sit down and relax but managed to raise the bar with many very
good performances, setting 6 new best times in the process.
These came in the 100m (15th) and 200m (9th)
butterfly, 50m (12th) and 100m (19th)
backstroke, 100m (16th) and 200m (20th)
medley events.
The other young man competing was James Shelley (14 years
old) who dearly wanted to record his first licensed meet sub 60
second freestyle. Willed on every inch of the way he just fell
short by 0.29 seconds. He did set some new best times in his 50m
free, 200m medley and 200m breaststroke, the latter being some 8
seconds quicker.
13 year old Robyn Beadel was not put off having to swim the
Open 400m medley in the same final heat as team-mate Kirsty
Forbes; in fact she revelled in the challenge finishing in 8th
place overall and some 17 seconds faster than her previous best
time. She also finished 12th in the 200m in a
personal best. Her 7th in the 100m backstroke, 8th
in the 200m backstroke and 9th in the 200m butterfly
were all in new best times.
Katinka
Merchan (12) managed to better her 200m butterfly time by over 6
seconds and then went on to better her 200m medley time by over
8 seconds. Katie Miles (13) worked extremely hard over 8 lengths
of breaststroke to beat her recently set 200m breaststroke time.
Georgia Shaw can take some cheer from the weekend when she set a
new best time by knocking nearly five seconds off her 200m
medley time.
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