Records tumble at first big event of the year

THE first important competition in the swimming calendar - the Channel Islands Closed Champion-ships at Beau Sejour - yielded 43 new gala records. Junior members from the four CI clubs competed under the British Age Group Category Awards Scheme.

Women of 14 and over and men of 15 and over competed in events of their choice with those producing the fastest times in the individual ones being crowned CI champion.

Beau Sejour Barracudas and the Guernsey Swimming Club competitors claimed 25 of the 36 titles.

Robyn Le Friec, 16, claimed six of them, three in the freestyle events which she won with relative ease - the exception being the 50m in which she was pushed into second by Ebony Jacklin of Tigers.

Looking all set to claim her place in the Island Games team, Le Friec dominated the butterfly events by winning the three distances - 50, 100 and 200m.

Showing a return to form after struggling with injuries and virus infections, breaststroke specialist Christine Hume won all three titles, while backstroker 17-year-old, Joanna Laine, took the 100 and 200 title with the 50 again going to Jacklin.

Victoria Parfit recorded the fastest time of the meet to become CI champion at just 13 years of age in the 400 individual medley - her time of 5.20.60 was a new gala record.

Ben Lowndes, 20, competed in a staggering 13 events, emerging the overall winner in five of them - the 50, 100 and 200 butterfly and the 400 and 100 individual medley - the latter a new gala record.

However, he did not have it all his way in his favourite events, the 50 and 100 freestyle, where he was beaten by 16-year-old Jeremy Osborne, who won both in times of 24.27 and 52.62 respectively.

Having posted breathtaking performances in the 50 and 100 freestyle, Osborne surprised everyone, including himself, by also winning the 200, finishing four seconds ahead of island record holder Jonathon Le Noury and five ahead of Lowndes, whose heavy programme was beginning to take its toll.

Osborne's time of 1-55.50 was inside the 15/16 record previously held by Lowndes and also inside the 17-and-over time set in 1998 by Sean Rowe-Hagans.

Using this event as an early-season assessment of form, following a month out of the water, Le Noury showed a little nervousness at the start.

This diminished, however, when he won the 400 freestyle in a respectable 4-09.52 and he went on to claim all three backstroke titles.

Stewart Hume, 15, took up the challenge of a new event in the programme - the mixed 800 freestyle and clinched this title in a time of 9-46.65.

Competing under the Bagcat scheme, there were a number of strong performances from the juniors, none more convincing than that of 10-year-old Kristina Neves, who set 11 gala records and topped the rostrum in her age group with her overall points tally of 2,435.

Matching Neves' performance was 11-year-old Grace Le Coulliard of Tigers who scored 2,842 points to take the honours in her age group with nine of her times bettering the old record.

Lotte Parfit was runner-up to Le Couilliard with four new records to her credit.

Other record breakers and Bagcats winners included 10-year-old Miles Munro (four records) and 11-year-old Luke Winberg (two records) with 13-year-old Joshua Lewis and 14-year-old Matt Butt also claiming top spot in their respective age groups.

Placing second to Emma Glendening of Tigers, Victoria Parfit also set three new gala records in the 13 years age group.

Awards for the best male and female swim of the meet went to Sam Fernandes and Emma Glendening of Tigers who scored the highest number of points under the British Comparative Performance Tables for the times they achieved in the women's and men's 1,500 freestyle events.