14 & Under SE Regional Champs 2018
Weekend 2
Saturday 26th May
The penultimate day of these championships at Crawley’s K2 started early with Annabel Pilgrim representing EPSC in the 1500m freestyle. This was the 1st time the girls had been able to swim this distance at these championships. Achieving the 800m freestyle qualifying time enabled swimmers to enter the 1500m freestyle for these champs. Annabel was in the 1st heat against all girls in her 12 year old age group. 30 lengths of the Long Course pool in an event you have never previously swum was the task facing all these girls!
Annabel swam strongly and held a good pace throughout the race. The work Stuart & Glen had done with pacing for this event showed when other swimmers started to drop off the pace and have no consistency. Annabel won her heat comfortably with 19.43.87. One further 12 year old beat her in subsequent heats and Annabel came away with a silver regional medal!
The next session saw Annabel joined by Cerys Howells, Emily Shaw & Kyarra Steele. Cerys & Kyarra were up first in the 50m backstroke. Kyarra had a good start and swam a fabulous 50m with a 35.06 seconds and a PB. Cerys was slightly off her PB but produced a respectable swim too.
Emily Shaw was up next in the 200m breaststroke. She swam well and achieved a 3.10.40. A top 15 finish at your 1st regional championships is an achievement in itself!
Annabel, Cerys and Kyarra were then in the final girl’s race of the day – the 100m freestyle. Kyarra swam first, started well and achieved another PB with a 1.07.18. She should be proud as she made the final’s reserve list for the 12 year old category. Cerys was a little off her PB but again held her own in the 13 year old category. Annabel just missed her PB too with a 1.06.22 but managed to qualify as 5th fastest 12 year old for the final.
100m Freestyle Final
Annabel had a good start and held the pace with the other 7 swimmers. It was a close race at the end with 0.2 seconds splitting 3rd to 5th place! A PB of 1.04.90 achieved her a well deserved 5th place in the 12 year old age group.
Sunday 27th May
The final day of the regional championships saw Kyarra Steele and Louisa Cippolata race in the first girl’s race of the day – the 50 fly. They were both in the 11-12 year old category. Kyarra looked strong the whole length and achieved another PB of 33.27. Louisa also swam well and although marginally off her PB she was only 1 of 8 swimmers in this event who were 11 years old. The other 30 qualified swimmers were all 12 years old. Louisa was the 3rd fastest 11 year old in the region, so a pretty impressive 1st Regionals!
Next up were Annabel and Cerys in the 200m free. Annabel swam a PB with a 2.22.11 which meant she qualified as 4th fastest for the 12 year old final later in the day. Cerys also had a strong swim and was on the reserve list for the 13 year olds final.
The final event saw Emily and Kyarra in the 100m breast. They both started strongly and swam with determination. Emily produced a fantastic turn at the half way mark and this gave her an advantage swimming home. Both achieved times around their PB’s. Emily with a 1.27.95 and Kyarra with a 1.28.35.
200m Freestyle Final
Annabel swam a fantastic final. Up against some of the top 12 year old swimmers in the South East, she held her own and at the half way point turned in joint 1st with the eventual winner! The final 50m was exciting as 7 of the 8 swimmers turned with a second between them all. Annabel clung on and put in a final spurt in the last 15m to touch in 3rd place for another regional medal!
Overall, a successful 14 & under championships! Numerous PB’s, medals and swims which show potential for the future! Most of the girls were swimming in their 1st Regional Championships and should be proud that they even qualified for the event! Well done to Annabel Pilgrim, Cerys Howells, Emily Shaw, Esme Sheriff, Kyarra Steele, Louisa Cippolata and Zara Pratt-Hart. It is a much bigger stage swimming at a regional level championships and the standard of swimming in the South East region is very high.
Thanks also go to the coaches who due to their success with the swimmers had to stay longer for the finals on many days!
Donna Pilgrm
EPSC Reporter :)
