A group of Pembrokeshire’s best swimmers grabbed four medals and clocked a load of personal best times at the Swansea Aquatics Long Course Open Meet.
The meet, held from May 12-14, attracted a high class group of swimmers from across Wales, England and even a club from Ireland.
The Pembrokeshire County Swimming (PCS) squad rose to the challenge, notching up a 77% personal best rate at the gala, held at the Wales National Pool in Swansea.
Sean Barrett shone for PCS, bagging a gold and silver medal in the 100m breaststroke and 200 individual medley (IM) respectively.
The Haverfordwest swimmer struck gold in the boys’ 13-14 year old breaststroke after hitting the wall in 1:12.31, dropping 0.62 seconds off his best time. He powered to silver in the IM race in a time of 2:25.43.
Charlie Shiels also raced to silver in the 11-12 year 100m breaststroke in a speedy 1:23.67. The Pembroke youngster also finished fifth in the 200m IM in a time of 2:46.17.
Louisa Twigg, from Haverfordwest, seized a bronze medal in the girls’ 15 and over 400 IM after touching in 5:12.04. Twigg also finished eighth in the 800m freestyle in a time of 9:37.35.
Outside the medals, there were some equally impressive performances as swimmers smashed their personal best times.
Abbie Williams dropped a massive 27 seconds to finish 5th in the 800m freestyle with a new personal best of 9:51.04 in the 13-14 year age group.
Lauren Omnet slashed six seconds off her 400 IM time to finish eighth in the 13-14 year event in a time of 5:42:46.
In the girls’ 13-14 year 100m butterfly, Bethan Jones finished sixth in a time of 1:13.35.
It's the boys 100m backstroke 13-14 years race Toby Sturley swam well to finish sixth in 1:17.43.
Arabella Haley, from Tenby, raced to sixth spot in the 15 and over 100m backstroke in 1:09.19. Her PCS colleague, Lucy Harding, was not far behind in seventh place, touching in 1:11.79.
Haley also finished in sixth in the 50m freestyle ‘splash and dash’ in a time of 29.45 seconds.
Rory Andrews dropped one second from his 200 IM time in the boys’ 11-12 event, with the Haverfordwest youngster finishing in a time of 2:47.33.
Finally, Tom Webb cut 0.29 seconds off his time in the 15 and over 100m breaststroke to touch in 1:09.06.
Craig Nelson, head development coach at PCS, said: “The PCS coaching team were delighted with the results from the weekend. It was a great step, moving forward for the training cycle.”
PCS is a partnership between Pembrokeshire County Council and the county’s six competitive swimming clubs - Haverfordwest Seals; Fishguard Flyers; Pembroke & District; Tenby Dolphins; Milford Tigers; and Preseli Panthers. It provides talented young swimmers with a recognised coaching pathway through to national and international level competitions.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here