www.islandstats.com gave day by day updates of the Winter Age Group Championships, Ben Smith, Head Coach for the Sharks Swim Club and National Coach said, ‘Overall I was pleased with the results of our swimmers. It is encouraging to see strong results at this point in the season but there is still a lot of work to be done. There were several errors made under the pressure of competition that we will be working on in the coming weeks so that we see better results at the next opportunity. At this point in the season it is important that they learn from the results of the meet and then focus on corrections or effort level when we get back to practice this week.”
Keagan Woolley was the stand out for the night. First in his 200m Freestyle he lowered his best time from 2:38.92 to 2:33.81. This time gave him his first qualifying time for Carifta but even more important it broke the Age Group Record www.islandstats.com reported on the day. The old record was 2:34.92 set in 1988 by Stephen Fahy. Woolley finished the day with a record swim in the 50m Backstroke where he swam 36.34 which lowered the record of 36.75 set in 1996 by Roy-Allan Burch.
On the second day Woolley continue his recording breaking. In the 100m Freestyle he swam 1:08.43 breaking the 1:08.90 that was set by Nick Thomson is 2002. Sophie Froud had a great 200m Freestyle where she was able to hit her AA time for Carifta.
Sunday morning of the competition produced some more fast record breaking swims. Froud was able to follow up her 200m Freestyle Carifta Qualifying time by hitting her second qualifying time in the 100m Freestyle with a very strong performance to finish the meet. Woolley capped up his last meet in the 10 and under by making his Carifta qualifying times in the 11-12 age group and lowering his own record in the 100m Backstroke from 1:18.95 to 1:18.18. Jesse Washington had a strong overall meet and really showed his strength in the 200m Butterfly where he took Nick Patterson’s record in a time of 2:19.18 which shattered the previous record of 2:27.69
Brian Frick, Head Coach for the Dolphin Swim Team commented, ‘In the Development Meet, over half our swims were swimmers trying new events, which is always good. Also half of our repeats resulted in faster times - just three weeks from our last meet. Our coaches were impressed with the calm, disciplined approach of our younger swimmers to their events, and also with a definite improvement in stroke technique. Although a small group, our Juniors and newer swimmers showed they have what it takes to succeed’.
Harbour Swim Team continued to impress in the first major meet of the new season. With over 200 personal best times across the team in the 2013-14 season to date, and following on from a period of hard training, the team entered the Bermuda National Winter Age Groups, a longer distance meet, full of expectation of strong swims, whilst aware that this meet is also a stepping stone into the Spring Series and the Summer meets which are the pinnacle of the swimming season both in Bermuda and internationally.
Leading the Harbour line up was Emma Harvey, who continues to impress and recorded a time of 2.46.65 in the 11-12 Girls 200m Butterfly, a new National Age Group record. Brett Smith swam strongly across all the events, as did Alex Pilgrim, who both finished as top Male in the 11-12 Age Group utilizing different standards for rankings, in an age group which is proving excitingly competitive. Peter Kiernan continues his impressive start to the season with further time improvements and in the Female 10&Under category, Maya Crockwell posted a time which enables her to train with the Bermuda Training Team.
