Imogen Laws swam an impressive 200m butterfly and is set to secure an Eastern Regional Qualifying time, when the qualifying times are officially announced shortly. When ratified she will be the first to achieve the mile stone at the Victory pool in North Walsham. This is because the club championships were “licenced” for the second year running; meaning that all times were deemed official. The ten year old completed the course in 3:28.81 winning her event by quite a considerable margin and went on to win again in her age group over 200m breaststroke. Imogen covered the eight lengths in a block busting junior tussle to finish in first place with 3:54.18.
In contrast, there were close finishes. None so close than the 11 year old 50m freestyle when Lexie Parker and Stefanie Smologewski “dead heated” with both hitting the pad simultaneously in 42.50 meaning both swimmers were deemed first under the laws of the sport. New member Amelie Cutting had the second fastest time with 42.91 and was awarded third place in the respective age group in her first club gala..
The Senior girls 100m freestyle was another close one when Leah Harris and Emily Morton crept away from the rest and only split second separated them at the finish with Leah finishing first in 1:03.22 from Emily’s 1:04.15.
The corresponding boys’ event was equally entertaining as Lewis Goultry Ashley Jones, Sam Morton and George Edridge were all in contention but after the 75 metre mark, Lewis stroked ahead to touch first in 58.34 from Ashley’s 1:01.78. Ashley was later a worthy winner of the 50m butterfly in 31.47 and then triumphed again in the 50m backstroke in 32.94. respectively.
Sam then hit back when he won the 200m breaststroke in 2:46.63 recording the fastest time over all whilst twin brothers Zak and George Edridge settled for the consolation places respectively.
The club had its fair share of debutants who made their mark. Amber Clarke was victorious in the 12 years 100m breaststroke when she touched in 1:51.03. This was followed by two second places in the same stroke., In the 50m she finished with 49.58 and over a longer distance of 200m Amber got her “second second” this time , losing out to Grace Parker as both girls recoded times times of 3:54.72 and 3:42.38 in the same age group respectively.
Debutant Ivy Bird was the winner of the 9 year 50m backstroke in 46.4 defeating seven fellow Vikings. In the corresponding boys event, Harry Metcalf was the fastest in 59.38 as he was in the 50m breaststroke scoring 1:11.25. This was also Harry’s first gala.
Amelia Hudson swam seven events which is very encouraging for a member who has just been promoted from the club’s development squad. Most impressive was her 200m freestyle when the 11 year old finished third with a brave 3:35.53 over 8 length of the Victory pool which earnt her third place.
Another debutant Amelie Cutting also made a good account of her self. In the 10 year old age group she was the second fastest in the 100m freestyle in 1:40.12 and second fastest again in the 50m butterfly with a 59.46.
Zerif Gokmen had every reason to celebrate by winning a silver and three bronze medals In the 100m Individual Medley, 14 year old Zerif went 1:39.02 demonstrating her improved ability on all four strokes for her silver medal.
Then there were three bronze medals to follow all of which were contested over 50m . The first came in the freestyle to finish in 37.16. Her second in the butterfly with 45.28 and the final one was her 50m breaststroke concluding in 54.0. Then there was an additional bonus when she was awarded the Senior Endeavour award by the club at their annual presentation evening shortly after the championships.
Evie Bates had a club championships she will not forget in a hurry Evie made it a hat trick of golds in all her freestyle events. In the 50m,(32.88) the 100m and the 200m freestyle There then followed more gold medals success including the 100m butterfly (1:33.03) and the 100m IM (1:22.39) with Zerfi as runner up.
Meanwhile, Milly’s elder twin brothers Zak and George had their inevitable skirmishes in the breaststroke events. In the 50m, George won in 41.06 from Zak’s 42.12 but in the longer distance of 200m, Zak was victorious in 3:14.19 over George’s 3:21.57.