6:00am Saturday 31st July 2010
Swindon Dolphin rounded off their 2009/2010 season with the increasingly popular end of season Open Meet last weekend at the Link Centre.
Almost 200 swimmers and 21 visiting clubs ensured the level three meet provided a high degree of competition for all competitors, and a final chance for all the athletes to assess their progress over the past year.
With Dolphin’s new squad structure coming into place next season, there was the added incentive for their swimmers to record a time that would see them climb another rung of the ladder.
Conditions were therefore ideal for some superb swimming and the results did not disappoint.
As expected, the younger age group swimmers all recorded significant improvements in their best times, many of these over the more appropriate 200m and 400m distances.
Notably, the top improvers were largely swimmers destined for the new county squads, whose primary ambition will be to qualify for the 2011 Wiltshire Championships next March.
Some fine performances, however, would suggest that the Regional Championships are also a realistic target.
Some notable improvements came from Liam Jefferies, Millie Jeans, Jerzy Pilipczuk, Denice Gardo, Abigail Ross and Josh Smith.
The youth and senior age group swimmers also put in some fine performances with all but a few recording personal best times.
Making an impression at the older end of the scale were Abigail Easter, Gina Popal, Matthew Watson, Patrick Seed, Lauren Matthews and Natalie Evans.
As well as recording best times, there was also some inspired head-to-head racing.
Dolphin’s Liam Herbert calmly fended off top heat challenges from team-mates James Clark and Jon Audis in the 200m and 400m freestyle respectively to touch home first on both occasions, whilst in the 200m butterfly a titanic battle in the 11 year old age group saw Dolphin’s Sean Purvis trail Tigershark’s Jack Patey for 190 metres only to pull back in the final 10 to take gold on the touch.
The girls’ 200m freestyle was no less competitive as Charlotte Pitts and Megan Jones fought off a challenge from Worcester’s Holly Horton to take a one-two finish for Dolphin.
Top medallist of the meet was Dolphin’s Liam Jefferies taking an incredible seven gold, three silver and one bronze from 11 events with team-mate Niall Westman earning seven gold from seven events.
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