Junior Viking Swimmers Excel at Gala
We took a small junior team travelled to Kings Lynn to compete in the West Norfolk Swimming Gala. It was challenging for them as they were up against new teams who came from the west of the region such as Huntingdon and Peterborough as well as Norwich Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth.
Joe and Emma Willimott swam beyond all expectations as they brought home two gold medals apiece and recorded a personal best in each of their swims. Joe, struck gold in the very first event when he touched in 49.27 over 50m backstroke. In the 50m freestyle he completed the course in 39.20 for a second gold.
Younger sister Emma meanwhile was making the most of her opportunities and in the 50m butterfly she won easily by a clear five seconds finishing first in 52.18 and recording a personal best by 21 seconds.
Emma’s second gold came In the 50m freestyle when she finished in 44.02 50, just out touching the Huntingdon swimmer by a split second and subsequently defeating a field of 18 swimmers.
More Viking gold medals followed when Rokas Kriksciunas won his first Viking medal which was a gold when he swam 50m breaststroke in 1:05.15 – a personal best. He was not finished here, Rokas took the silver for the 50m freestyle in his respective age group with 48.03. This was followed by Finn Callaby winning over 50m freestyle with his 48.4 in a different age group.
There were first Viking medal for Alice Dickerty when she bagged a pair of silvers. The 50m backstroke in 42.67 and 50m freestyle in 36.41 both in respective personal best times.
There was a silver lining too for Finn’s elder sister Layla when she was second in the 100m freestyle with 1:22.38 in a personal best.
Leonardo Jones achieved two bronze medals respectively His successes came over the 100m freestyle in 1:45.19 and he followed it up with a second bronze for the 50m backstroke with 52.31 both in personal best times.
It was a similar scenario with Anna Thurston with her two personal best bronze medals. Anna went 43.71 for 50m backstroke and the 50m freestyle in 36.48 respectively just loosing out to Alice by seven one hundredths of a second!
Also representing Vikings was Amelie Cutting who recorded personal bests but were not in the medals this time. These came in the 50 freestyle finishing fifth in 51.12 and fifth again this time over 50m butterfly in 1:08.87 to take the Viking total to 6 Golds 4 Silvers 4 Bronze and 20 personal bests out of 22 swims. After the gala John said
“With so many personal best times one can hardly complain about their performances and with winning 6 golds, 4 silvers and 4 bronze medals, it just epitomized their dedication and commitment from all who swam.”