Swimmer of Meet

 
Anglian League 2nd Round
22nd April, 2006
 
The A team sit comfortably in first place but we have been here before at this stage of the league.

We meet the Champions of the past two years in the next round and of course we meet them in the final.

Ben Pogson started the gala off with victory and a  best time in the 100m IM and Rebecca Price, back from holiday, doubled the win in the girls event.  Although Patrick Ikhena could only finish in second place in the 15/u 100m Fly he is getting closer to that National time. Ruth Singleton also finished in second place.  Good swims from Frazer Overton and Molly Wright both in best times and winning the 13/u 100m Freestyle put us in command with a 9 point lead over Louth.

It was nice to see the other clubs fighting to stay in touch and by event 12 we were 10 points clear of Kings Lynn.  But with an unusual 5th place we started to wobble, then came a good swim from Brendan Clark and an excellent swim form Kayleigh North (who nearly got my vote as swimmer of the meet) in the 13/u 100m Backstroke which put us back to 9 points in front of St Ives.
With another 5th place finish followed by Laura Swain putting her best time forward in event 24 to win the 13/u 100m Fly, this  kept us 4 points ahead of St.Ives.
With 4 events to go they had pulled level.  Jessica Murfin swam to victory in a best time for the 100m Backstroke followed by Alex French winning the13/u100m Breast, this along with winning the relay gave the club Victory.
Swimmer of the Meet goes to Joshua Teague who took 16 seconds off his 200m IM to win the 13/u event.

 


The B team, after a very good first round beating Wisbech, were turned over by the host club and had to settle for third place behind champions City of Norwich and Wisbech.

By beating Norwich Swans and Downham, the B team make the next round very interesting - who will make the final gala?

In the next round, the B team have a tough draw at home facing the top three teams in the league.

The team found it hard to win races with City of Norwich not wanting to loose grip of the trophy and Wisbech, being at home, had a lot stronger team out than we saw at Boston in January.
Of two wins for the team Katy Thorn won the 15/u 100m Butterfly not quite achieving a PB but Katy did manage a  PB in the open 50m Butterfly losing on the touch but recording the same time as the Norwich girl.  After 13 events the team was in fourth place only ahead of Downham but this was not through not trying as there were some good swims.  Best times came from Leah West 100m IM, Elvijs Roberts 100m Free, Jemma Tointon 100m Breast, Ben Warren 200m IM, Mark Tebbs 100m Free, Rachael Albrighton 50m Free, Reuben Reed 100m Fly, Ross West and Emma Penniston both 100m Back andJoseph Howe 100m Breast.

Swimmer of the Meet was a hard choice and Emily made her choice on the night but I was not sure as her facts were wrong.
Double best times were achieved by Grace Pike in the 100m Breast and 200m IM but Grace has never swam 200m IM before; Heather Guy was not even selected for the team but was brought in at the last moment and swam 2 best times nearly getting my vote. With wins hard to come by I think the swimmer of the meet should go to a winner and Kimberley Van Haren won the 200m IM and improved her best time by 0.9 of second nearly getting my vote, but I decided to agree with Emily and give the title Swimmer of the Meet to Katy Thorn who improved her 50m Fly time by 0.83 of second in a finger nail finish and also won the 15/u 100mFly.
 

Ian