Berkhamsted swimmers put in good displays in St Albans

A group of 29 ventured over to Westminster Lodge, St Albans for the Spring Meet while Kate Hopper was at Luton Inspire for a Long Course, Level 1 National Qualifier Meet.

Saturday afternoon at the Lodge began with 400m Free for Valeria Antonini, Jess Rainbow and Rose Llewhellyn. Antonini and Rainbow were in their first open meet 400s and Antonini first in the water claimed second in her heat slipping inside six minutes with 5:57.99 for sixth in her age. Rainbow then stormed home to win her heat and fifth in her age posted 5:42.21.

Llewhellyn had experienced the 400m Free at Wycombe recently. She used what she had learned in the 50m pool to good advantage here in a short course pool, clocking 6:04.66 for third in her heat and fourth in age.

Alex Howard was the only BSC boy in the 200m Individual Medley and will be happy with 3:27.81 less than half a second per length outside his PB.

Howard was back again for the 100m Free (1:15.60) alongside Sam Childs, Will Franklin and Jack Moss and all four of them set PB times. Childs set the tone with 1:31.57 before Moss reversed some recent result against Franklin. His 1:10.23 was a massive five second new best with Franklin himself also improving to 1:14.13 for fifth and ninth respectively in their age group.

In the Girls’ 100m Breast Caitlin Wright and Mia Monksmith were swimming their first 100m races at the stroke. Wright clocked 2:26.91 with Monksmith winning her heat in 1:53.02. Llewhellyn was also in her first 100m Breast taking fifth in her age group in 1:46.17. Poppy Carbery and Lucy Franklin set their own pbs with 1:42.19 and 1:37.50. Antonini swam 1:31.24 and came away with the club’s first medal taking silver. There was another PB for Llewhellyn in her own 1:46.17 before Tamsin Moren continued her recent return to form setting a PB for the second successive weekend hitting 1:17.79 and claim Gold having gone in as second seed.

The Boys’ 50m Back brought more pbs for brothers Oscar and Jack Moss (51.45 and 38.84), for Howard (43.73), Childs (53.20) and Oliver Lloyd (52.41) as the youngsters learn how to race hard. Will Franklin recorded 39.28.

Final event of the first session was the Girls’ 50m Fly. Monksmith (56.89) Antonini (41.46), Carbery (41.77), Llewhellyn (36.40) and Moren (34.02) all showed the effects of having swum several races to be slightly outside their bests although Llewhellyn managed to pick up a Fly medal again with Silver.

The second session on Saturday brought more pbs and medals and also some disqualifications for the more novice swimmers who will, hopefully, learn from the errors to avoid falling foul of some of the arcane laws of the sport.

Darcie Cader was first up in the 200m Free and knocked 19 seconds from her PB with 3:24.88before Poppy Carbery improved similarly with 2:48.63, winning her heat as well and Antonini lowered her best by 10 seconds to go 2:46.73. Walters picked up a fourth with 2:27.71 as did Moren in 2:27.34. Rainbow was delighted with 2:38.00 for seventh and both she and Monksmith won their heats.

Fordyce won his 200m Breast heat in his first swim at stroke and distance posting 3:43.91 for second in the 10 years age group and then in the 100m Fly there were medals for both Cader, in her first competitive fly race and the experienced Walters. Cader went 1:55.08 to walk away with Bronze and Walters, just off her week old best time, took the Gold with 1:16.37.

The first Disqualification of the day came with Fordyce in his 100m Back but he will benefit from the experience and Jack Moss showed his continued improvement with a 7 second PB in 1:27.81 (7th).

In the Girls’ 100m Back Carbery set new figures with 3:27.05 and Cader was sixth with 3:56.11.

The Boys’ 50 Breast saw Fordyce back for his, currently, favourite event and he put is Backstroke disappointment behind him to take Gold in 49.66 supported by Oliver Lloyd (1:01.04), Oscar Moss (55.04), Will Franklin (45.93) and Jack Moss, winning his heat (44.81) while Sam Childs was unfortunately disqualified after a good swim.

Final event of the day was the Girls’ 50m Free and it went out with a bang. There were Golds for Moren (29.60), Walters – who just a week after going sub 30 for the first time, managed to go even quicker with 29.66 and Welbourn – herself sub 30 for the first time in 29.80. Antonini claimed Silver in 31.08 (pb) as she closes in on her own sub 30 and Poppy Awdry to Bronze in 31.58. Rainbow was chuffed with her own PB of 31.89 in one of her first Open Meets. Monksmith was fourth (36.34) with Wright (47.47 pb), Cader (44.13) and Lucy Franklin (39.24) rounding off the first day’s swims for the club.

The Boys’ 400m Free opened Sunday afternoon with the Broadwith brothers, Ollie and Tom in their first Open Meet. Swimming alongside each other Ollie won the heat with 5:35.68 and Tom following him home in 6:47.71.

Antonini and Cader took on the 200m IM for the first time and swam to 3:07.75 and 3:44.77 with both coming second in their respective heats.

Rose Williamson led off the Girls’ 100m Free for the club with a PB of 1:25.21 as she came home second in her heat. This was the first of a full house of 8 pbs from 8 swims for the Girls. Darcie Cader – 6 seconds – 1:35.75 and Maddison Hessey – 4 seconds – 1:37.65 swam in the same heat and Emilia Faccini posted her own 5 second PB with 1:30.53. Monksmith continued where she had finished on Saturday with yet another PB of 1:18.78 and another Bronze medal. Antonini dropped a second to 1:13.89. Awdry and Welbourn resumed their rivalry in the same heat and both lowered their pbs to 1:08.91 and 1:07.59. Awdry collected Silver for her efforts with Welbourn picking up fourth place.

There were three first time 100m Breast swims for the Boys with both Tom and Ollie Broadwith in the water again. Ollie collected his first medal at an Open meet with third 15 Year old (1:36.02); Tom clocked 1:54.88 and Rafe Lawson came home with 1:49.15. Oliver Lloyd went PB with 2:15.32 as did Jack Moss with 1:41.25.

Antonini won her heat in the 50m Back slicing a highly improbable 15 seconds from her 2 length best to touch in 39.15. Cader (48.56), Williamson (44.58), Monksmith (45.22) all set pbs with Awdry hitting the pads in 39.54. Ameline Kreckel and Welbourn both won their respective heats in 45.72 and 37.95.

The last event of the third session was the Boys’ 50m Fly and saw Jack Moss improve by four seconds (43.77) and Rafe Lawson, in his signature event, posted 39.63 for the Bronze medal.

With just one final session left the swimmers knuckled down for some further fast swimming.

The quartet of Tom Broadwith (3:11.20), Alex Howard (2:50.64), Jack Moss (2:43.01 pb) and Ollie Broadwith (2:38.39) kicked proceedings off with the 200m Free with all bar Moss swimming the distance in competition for the first time.

They were followed with five girls, Rose Williamson, Valeria Antonini, Lucy Franklin, Emilia Faccini – with her first swim of the meet and Mia Monksmith taking on the 200m Breaststroke which is a killer event on the legs. Monksmith and Faccini were doing the distance for the first time and swam in the same, early, heat with Monksmith (4:01.43) just topping Faccini (4:07.82) in their personal duel. Williamson posted 4:21.15 in the next heat whilst Franklin shaved 1.5 seconds from her best in 3:30.34.

Antonini is learning how to race and chopped a huge 17 seconds from her best to finish with 3:16.00 as she slipped further and further ahead of the opposition to win her heat convincingly.

Next event for the club’s athletes was the 100 Back for the Girls and Williamson was again in the water along with Antonini and Maddison Hessey. She slashed 8 seconds from her best time (1:42.34) and, in the same heat, Hessey was a fraction outside her PB with 1:46.83 in a close race between the pair over the 4 lengths. Antonini won her heat again with a first time swim of 1:28.75 and then Alex Howard was the sole representative in the Boys’ 200m Back recording 3:09.72 for an overall fifth place.

With just 2 events left, the Girls took on the 50m Breast with a best placing of fourth for Monksmith in 49.21 (pb). Williamson set new figures with 54.70 and Kreckel posted 55.74 whilst Lucy Franklin clocked a time of 45.06 just 1/100th slower than her PB.

The Boys finished the meet with the 50m Free with 3 of them, Tom and Ollie Broadwith and Oliver Lloyd competing at the event for the first time in an Open meet clocking 38.00, 32.26 and 46.94 respectively leaving Will Franklin and Jack Moss to finish fourth and fifth in Age with 31.90 and 31.72 showing again how evenly matched they are and Howard finishing with 33.09 to complete the busiest meet in a while for the club.

Meanwhile, at the Putteridge National Qualifier Long Course meet at Luton Inspire Pool, Kate Hopper swam her first Long Course 200m IM and posed a creditable 2:33.41 for 9th place which would convert to a 2 second PB in a 25m Pool and looked forward to her Sunday morning 400m IM with confidence. She was also spot on her 50m Free PB time with 29.32.

Moving on to Sunday morning and she began with what turned out to be a slightly disappointing 400m IM, finishing sixth in 5:40.03. However she was confident that tactically, next time she swims it she will finish much quicker. Her final event was the 50m Fly where she was happier with 31.45.