Weston swimmers shine at the final weekend of the South West Regional Age Groups at Millfield School.

THE final weekend of the South West Regional Age Groups at Millfield School began with Weston swimmers looking to improve on the great results from the previous weekend.

The day kicked off with the girls’ 200m freestyle. Immy Moroney’s entry time of 2.42.22 was blown apart as she finished her heat in 2.36.76 to qualify in third place for the 10 years final. This was followed by fantastic heat swims from Evan King and Lucy Davies to qualify in third and sixth respectively for the 12 years final.

The boys 200 I/M (Individual Medley) saw James Gahame’s first swim of this year’s regional championships. His time of 2.39.77 was close to his short course PB and the opening 50m was promising for his upcoming 100m fly.

In the girls’ 100m fly, Alice Davies more than made up for his disappointment of the previous week in the 200m, by qualifying for the 10 years final. Evan King recorded yet another PB to qualify second for the final.

Bradley Lucas, James Gahame and Scott Bradley had all qualified for the 200m backstroke and it was great to see the boys confidently attacking this event.

The afternoon session saw three strong swims, in the girls’ 200m I/M. Immy Moroney again took a massive chunk off of her entry time to qualify in third place for the 10 years final. Weston continued their dominance of the 12 years finals as Evan King qualified in fifth and Lucy Davies was the fastest qualifier, following the heats.

The finals started well, Immy PBd in the 200m freestyle again, but in a close race finished fifth. Lucy and Evan followed in the 12 years final, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

In a much improved finals swim, Alice Davies lowered her 100m fly PB from the morning to finish eighth. Evan was in next and displayed fierce determination down the final 25m metres to lower her best time again and win the 12 years 100m fly. Her final time of 1.09.45 places her fifth in her age group in the country (at the time of writing).

Evan then swam her third final of the afternoon, the 200m I/M. After the highs of the 100m fly final, she did well to recompose herself and finished eighth. Immy Moroney smashed her heat time to finish in 2.57.83, taking the silver medal. Not to be outdone, Lucy Davies moved up a gear in the 12 year girls’ final, lowering her PB from the heat by a further 1.5 seconds, achieving a NQT and also took silver.

Weston had a fantastic turnout of swimmers for both the girls’ 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke. Rebecca Lucas was within a second of the time she had set during the relays the week before and Immy Moroney, Alice Davies, Emily Watkins, Evan King and Lucy Davies all achieved new long course PBs. This saw Evan and Lucy progress to yet another 12 year final.

The 100m breaststroke again resulted in more long course PBs. Jessie Dadds was seeded third for the 10 years final and Lucy Davies seeded second for the 12 years final.

James Gahame’s 100m butterfly was as strong as had been anticipated. His confidence, following weeks of hard fly sets in training, was evident during the second 50m and he finished in a new PB, smashing his previous short course best time.

Arguably the toughest event of the whole meet, the 400m I/M saw another great performance from Immy Moroney, with a lightening fast final 100m to eclipse her entry time by over 20 seconds and secure second place in the 10 years age group.

A few heats later, Lucy and Evan were back in the water again and despite taking part in a mammoth number of events over the four days, still had the stamina to produce lifetime best swims with Evan finishing in fourth and Lucy taking another silver medal

During the last set of finals, Jessie and Lucy both won bronze medals in the 10 year and 12 year age groups respectively, taking a further 0.5 sec off the times they had set in the heats. Lucy’s time was a NQT for a 12-year-old and ranks her within the top 20 in the country for the 13-year-olds.

BAGCats (British Age Group Categories) are based on Fina points and are awarded to children up to the age of 13 (girls) or 14 (boys). Points are awarded according to the swimmers recorded times in a certain events. The points for the best events in each group (medley, distance front crawl, form and sprint - 100m) are then added up.

Therefore BAGCats aim to reward the best overall swimmer in each age group. Weston was fantastically represented in these presentations with Evan King taking fifth place and Immy Moroney and Lucy Davies both achieving third in their age groups.

This was the best representation Weston has seen during the BAGCat presentations at South West regional level and highlights the strength and depth of the young squad who train at Hutton Moor.

Weston Swimming Club would also like to thank Hutton Moor’s swimming teachers for their support of the Talent ID programme, which brought Evan to the swimming club and encourages young swimmers with potential to achieve, into swimming when they complete their LTS lessons.

The last 2 Talent ID sessions before the summer break, run by the Weston Swimming Club head coach, will take place at Hutton Moor on July 3 and 17 from 5-6pm, for swimmers who are in Stage 7 of the NPTS.

If you have a child who would like to learn to swim, the club also run highly successful Learn To Swim (LTS) sessions throughout the year.

For more information, please contact Tina Byatt at learntoswim@weston-super-mare-swimming-club.co.uk or Rachel Aldington at headcoach@weston-super-mare-swimming-club.co.uk

The three BAGCat winners (from left): Immy Moroney, Evan King and Lucy Davies.