News from Youth Nationals Day 2!

Day 2 of the Youth National Championships started off with the heats of the 200m Fly. Kevin Wallbank posted a great pb to start the day off, and Ben Goodall was again just outside his best.

We had three girls competing in the 200m Breaststroke today (With Molly Renshaw having competed earlier in Shanghai in the same event) all 3 girls were motivated and Jodie Hawksworth, Sarah Vasey and Leah Hollingsworth all made it through to the semi-finals, with Jodie swimming a faster time than her swim at European Juniors, Sarah getting within 0.06 of her personal best time and Leah just outside hers.

Next up was the 200m I.M for men and Kev Wallbank again posted a 3 second personal best time in an impressive swim to qualify for the semi-finals. Matt Smithurst who has not had the easiest long course season swam his season best time just outside his lifetime best in a solid way to end the season. Ben Goodall again swam a gutsy swim outside his personal best time.

Evie Keane swam a hard 400m Freestyle looking good to 250m and tieing up in the last few lengths. Evie who has not had an easy few months also swam the second leg of the 4 x 100m Free relay along with Fran Marshall, Tyler-Ann Black and Emily Allsopp who improved on their entry position and were 3 seconds faster than their qualification swim back in May.

Tonights finals and semi-final swims got off to a great start with the girls in the 200m Breaststroke. Jodie Hawksworth has qualified for the final in 4th position in a season best time of 2.36.39 and will be looking to step up in the final. 14 year old Sarah Vasey who was ranked 31st going into the championships also qualified for the 14/15 years final in 10th place in a 4 second personal best time, which is also looking great for her favourite 100m later in the week. 14 year old Leah Hollingsworth who achieved her first regional and national qualifying times, and has won her first regional medal and qualified for her first national semi-final all in one season swam a tough semi-final and fell short of her time earlier in the day. This semi-final experience so early on in her national swimming career will be of invaluable use in the future.

Kev Wallbank swam in the 200m I.M semi-final but never quite reached the speed of this morning and did not manage to improve on his personal best time from this morning.

Hannah Jones the youngest in the field in the 14/15 years 200m Fly swam a personal best time of 2.19.95 to finish 6th in the double age band. Hannah has improved her time 3 times in this championships and stepped up each round which is what championship swimming is all about.

James Latham then competed in his first National individual final, and was the only 15 year old to swim in the 15/16 years final, marginly missed his personal best time but stepped up from 10th to 9th position, showing his maturity and lessons learnt in experience from last year.

Thanks also to the support from the other DX and DXDS swimmers who are not competing at these championships so far over the last few days its been great to see people making the journey especially to support their teammates.