SE area medals for Hallett and Whitchurch
EVEN with tough qualifying times there were still almost 1,500 individual entries submitted for the 2019 South East Regional Championships held over four days at Wycombe Leisure Centre.
Yet, Charlie-Joe Hallett and Sarah Whitchurch were medallists for the Guernsey Swimming Club.
Following on from a strong performance two weeks previously at the Portsmouth Northsea Open Meet, Hallett again had some great swims, making the finals in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events.
He managed to better his personal best for the 100m breaststroke, just missing out on a bronze as he finished fourth. He also had a great swim in the 200m individual medley, finishing first in his heat to make the final ranked third fastest.
In that final he started with a strong butterfly leg and touched in first place, slightly ahead of the pace he set in the heats.
With a steady backstroke, which is his weakest stroke, he dropped two places but was still in contention as he went into his favourite breaststroke leg.
Sensing success, he powered on to regain the lead heading into the freestyle where he was just pipped to the touch as he finished with the silver in a new personal best time of 2-11.59.
Multi Classification Swimmer Sarah Whitchurch had a great weekend and improved her personal best times in all her swims.
Competing against other classified swimmers ranging from 1-14, she and rivals swum for points which are derived from their times set against the world record in their classification.
Whitchurch won the gold in the 50m backstroke, silver in the 200m freestyle and finished fourth overall in the 50m and 100m freestyle events.
Samuel Lowe and Ronny Hallett produced some good strong swims, with both boys having moved up from short course events (25m pool) to the long course championships (50m pool).
The weekend proved valuable experience as they prepare to make their Island Games debuts in Gibraltar in July.
Meanwhile, Charlie-Joe Hallett’s swims have moved him up in the British rankings and at present he has two qualifications in the British Nationals to be held in Glasgow and two swims in the English Nationals to be held in Sheffield.
Whitchurch has also qualified for the English Nationals and the British Para Nationals.
