Back-to-back big meets for Hallett
CHARLIE-JOE HALLETT will be among the many swimmers trying to make an impression at the home Channel Islands Championships this weekend – although the event is just a small part of the plan for Guernsey’s breaststroke number one.
The Island Games champion will be one of around 160 swimmers in action at the three-day meet spanning Friday to Sunday at Beau Sejour.
Guernsey and Jersey have already run their 1,500m championships separately, and now the four CI clubs will meet in Guernsey to contest an array of titles, with Hallett getting a final test of form over the breaststroke events before making his ‘Winter Nationals’ debut the next week.
He will not be the only favoured Sarnian in the Beau Sejour competition.
Fellow GSC breaststroke star Laura Le Cras is the top seed for no fewer than five events, while Island Games veteran Ben Lowndes, butterfly swimmer Orla Rabey and tall sprinter Jonny Beck lead the way by form in their focal disciplines.
Afterwards, both Hallett and Millfield-based backstroke prospect Tatiana Tostevin are off to Pond’s Forge, Sheffield, for the short-course Swim England Winter National Champs.
Hallett has qualified for five events in the 5-8 December competition – the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke as well as the 200m and 400m individual medley.
Tostevin will focus on the 50 and 100 back.
Hallett has also qualified well in advance for the senior British Championships in London in April, which will be of even higher status this year due to being an Olympic qualifier.
Meanwhile, GSC swimmer Sarah Whitchurch heads to Manchester to compete in the National Para-Swimming Championships this weekend.
