Six Guernsey records set at Winter Nationals
GUERNSEY’S short-course record books faced some significant revisions at the Swim England National Winter Championships.
Chloe Bown set no fewer than five records in England’s biggest winter swimming meet, staged at Ponds Forge, while Ronny Hallett finally got his name in the books after beating older brother Charlie-Joe’s 100m breaststroke best.
Charlie-Joe was also in action and his biggest achievement was finishing a splendid sixth in the 50m breaststroke A final, with Ronny one spot behind, in what was overall an outstanding haul of results for the Guernsey Swimming Club.
Guernsey and Mount Kelly swimmer Bown’s first record came in the 200m individual medley, where she posted 2min. 14.11sec.
She swam a record-breaking 1-09.13 to make the 100m breaststroke A final, where she finished 10th, and over its 200m counterpart put down another marker of 2-29.61. She had taken both marks from former Commonwealth Games swimmer Helen Watts earlier this season.
In the other IMs, she continued her assault on the record books with 4-46.10 over 400m and 1-02.14 in the 100m.
Although she did not set a record in her final event, the 200m freestyle, her 2-03.43 was not far outside Kristina Neves’ existing mark.
Meanwhile, the 100m breaststroke’s minute barrier has been a long-term focus for both Hallett
brothers, and Ronny is now also knocking on its door after swimming 1-00.21 to win the B final and shave 0.10sec. off Charlie-Joe’s record.
‘It’s great to finally get my first Island record,’ the 20-year-old said.
‘It’s something for us both to build on.
‘After a lot of hard training, achieving this feels good and feeds into making me want to train harder – it drives us both forward for the next time we race.’
For Charlie-Joe, it was his first competition of the season, having started his training a month later than normal due to recovery from illness.
But he still managed to place fourth in the B final with his second-fastest time yet of 1-00.79.
Charlie-Joe then competed over the 200m breaststroke, where he qualified for the B final and swam 2-14.94.
Both Hallett boys then took on a very competitive field in the 50m breaststroke.
After making the A final, Charlie-Joe finished sixth in 27.48 and Ronny set another PB after touching in 27.62 for seventh.
