It’s the summer holidays yet our swimmers are still busy! Over the last couple of weeks Exonians have been competing at The Aquatics GB Summer Championships and The Swim England Summer Championships. The Aquatics GB Summer Championships is for invited swimmers in Great Britain aged 13 and up who sit in the top of their rankings, and The Swim England Summer Championships is for swimmers aged 12 and above or the next fastest swimmers in the older age groups. We are delighted to announce that pupils James, Holly, Evie and Harry took part in a summer meet, and achieved some impressive results.
James spent a week racing at the Aquatics GB Summer Championships, competing with the very best swimmers in Britain in his age group 14) across eight individual events. In a very competitive age group in which British records were smashed, James raced every day, multiple times a day, and qualified for an incredible four finals. He came away with 7 personal best times, finishing 6th in Britain in the 200 fly, 8th in 100 fly, and 10th in both the 200 free and 200IM.
Holly qualified for five events at the Swim England Summer Championships and despite not feeling too well at the beginning of the week, her strength and confidence shone in the second half. In the 200IM, Holly was the fastest 12 year old and in the 200 fly she swam a huge PB in the morning heat which seeded her first going into the evening final. Holly was racing in the 12-13 category, but this didn’t put her off and she swam another 5 second PB to clock a final time of 2:23:19 which was enough not only win the national title in the 12-13 category but would have won her gold in the 17 category. Holly’s time is the fourth fastest all time 200 fly swim for her age in the UK.
Evie’s no stranger to these races, as it was her third successive year to qualify for national level championships. This year she qualified for five of the tougher races, including the 800 free, 200 fly, 400 IM and 400 free across both the GB Summer and Swim England Summer Championships. She swam them all beautifully and is looking forward to continuing her success next season.
Harry was invited to race in the GB Aquatics Summer National Championships and swam well during this televised competition achieving a season’s best time. One week later Harry returned to Sheffield, in the Swim English Summer National Meet. Again, Harry was invited to swim in several events across the 6 days of competition and again Harry performed well achieving new personal best times and earning a place to race in a very difficult final.
