Reading’s
annual swimming highlight over Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday passed
the test of any meet in a sport with continuously rising standards – the
number of meet records broken in the various age groups and overall grand
finals. Three of the records to go belonged to swimmers who went on to compete
at world level.
The 100m freestyle grand final win by Georgina Heyn (Teddington SC) in
58.16 beat the record set in 1997 by Olympian Karen Legg, who announced her
retirement recently, and Kingston’s Owen Morgan beat the 2002 50m freestyle
mark set by Simon Burnett of Wycombe, now British 200 record holder. And the 15
years 400 free record set in 2000 by Cardiff's Athens 1500 bronze medallist
David Davies fell to Wycombe’s Robert Matthews-Stroud – with Davies’s
coach, Dave Haller, on poolside to see it with a large contingent from the
leading Welsh club.
Although a proliferation of meets and a forced tightening of initial entry
times mean far too many meets are chasing too few A-grade swimmers at this time
of the year, rising standards were also reflected in some events for younger age
groups. The 400 free for 12-and-unders saw the first three boys all inside the
previous meet best and Reading’s Adam Barrett – a multiple medallist as he
followed his great series at the recent Berks and South Bucks championships –
was first home.
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Girl’s events
Two Reading girls reached the pinnacle of the
meet by winning grand finals over 200 and 100 metres. Emma Zadrozny, a close
second in the recent Berks and South Bucks 200m fly, took the prize money in
2:25.09, closely followed by teammate Leanne Haas.
Zadrozny starred throughout the weekend, including a thrilling series of
medley “skins” elimination finals (see separate report), and also came out
on top in the “heat-declared” 400m individual medley – decided on heat
times – where she headed home teammates Holly Tanner and Leona Jones
in 5:05.71.
The breaststroke grand finals were a double
success for Jones, 16, already a national qualifier over both distances. Jones
swam 1:14.87 – the national time for her age group to the hundredth - to beat
one of the meet’s top overall performers in the 20-year-old Heyn in the
shorter final, and 2:41.74 to head Nikki Smith of Bristol club Soundwell over
200.
The longest event for girls, the 800 free, was
also decided on heats and again produced a home winner, albeit in a smaller
field than recent years.
Louisa Herring, already well inside the
qualifying time for May’s Southern Counties championships at Crystal Palace,
took a further five seconds off her PB as she wore down City of Cardiff's Jess
White in the closing stages to finish in 9:24.91. Herring is now inside the
national mark for swims in more demanding 50-metre pools, with several further
opportunities before the end of May deadline.
The strong home support helped pull along
another Reading girl to the career landmark of a first ever national time.
Kristina Paige, 13, secured it in her 100m butterfly heat on Saturday in
1:09.25, also fast enough to win her age group and make her the youngest grand
finalist. Among her other swims, Paige collected an age group silver for her 200
free, narrowly behind one of the meet’s top younger girls in Molly Thorpe of
Tunbridge Wells and ahead of another, Brierley Hill’s Stephanie Hackett.
Zadrozny and Haas also put in strong 100 fly
performances as Reading fielded three of the six grand finalists, taking silver
and bronze respectively and Haas thus winning the 15 years gold.
Reading’s other female grand final medallist
was 15-year-old Holly Tanner, who took a 200 backstroke silver after setting a
new age group record in her heat. Ashley James, just 13, also made the grand
final in a 2:35.04 which will take her to Southern Counties.
Naomi Herring just pipped James to the age
group bronze over 100 metres, both girls cutting their PB in both heat and final
and both achieving Southern Counties standard.
Frankie Wilkins and Annette Hopson were in the
same positions in the 12-and-unders, again PBs each time out, and Wilkins has a
further year in the age group and Hopson a further two.
Wilkins swam a lot of metres and among other
events, slashed her PB in both 800 free and 400 IM, with a 10:29.37 800 just
beating the Southern Counties mark for automatic qualification.
Rachael Mills, 12, was just a hundredth
outside an age group 50 free medal, with Katie Hawkins fifth and Rebecca Lowe
sixth.
The home team’s youngest 400 freestyle entrants - Mills (second of three
12-and-unders) and Herring and Vanessa Wood (second and third, but again in a
field of only three) – all slashed their entry times, respectively by 24, 37
and 23 seconds. One place outside
the medals in her year, Louise Gillatt was close to Southern Counties
qualification for 15s and Louisa Herring and Amy Thomas placed fourth and fifth
16-year-olds.
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Boys’
events:
Reading’s four national qualifiers before
the meet – Barrett, Korting, Garry Dixon and Alex Macarthur – all swam
outstandingly and were joined by a fifth as head coach Graeme Thomas’s
coaching programme continues to assemble the club’s biggest nationals
contingent in years.
Callum Willcox, 11, needed to beat a time of
3:07.56 to qualify for Sheffield in July in the 200m breaststroke and recorded
3:07.06 in the swim of his life – beating his entry time by more than five
seconds.
As an incentive to the youngest swimmers to
tackle 200s rather than 100s, there is no separate qualification for the shorter
events. Making the 200 time, however, also gives you the 100m swim, meaning
Willcox qualified for two events at once. Chris Boyce was fifth in the year to
Willcox’s seventh, but at six months older is chasing a much tougher set of
times. His meet highlights were third spot in the tough 400 IM and fourth place
in his 100 back.
Reading’s top swims in the 200 breast heats came from 15-year-olds York
Kloeppel, who recorded 2:36.87, well within the Southern Counties standard, and
Korting, with Korting just edging fourth place in the grand final
Macarthur, already a national qualifier in the
1500 free, added the 400 to his card for Sheffield. Top 13-year-old overall at
the end of the meet, Macarthur is yet to turn to 14 but has to make that age
group’s times. His 4:22.89 was well inside the target, a 10-second PB and won
the year by 13 seconds.
A series of impressive swims also included a
200 IM win by a big margin, a 100 free gold less than half a second off a very
tough “NQT”, and a 100 fly win which broke a 1996 meet record.
Korting was also top boy in his year, swimming
a big programme as usual and in a number of great contests with training partner
Garry Dixon. Birth dates mean the pair are in the same age category for the next
three months only. The 400 IM was a particular Reading strength, and Reading
fielded all three 15 years medallists in Korting (4:50.14), Dixon (also sub-4:51
in a five-second best) and Kloeppel, plus Kristian Statham fourth, placing
Korting and Dixon second and third overall behind only the formidable Ben
Lowndes.
Dixon won the year’s 200 fly, where
Reading’s top performer overall was Daniel John with an excellent grand final
bronze ahead of a very strong swimmer in Tunbridge Wells’ Harry Clarke.
Craig Frankum, newly promoted to Reading’s top
squad, was another thriving in the meet atmosphere and reeled off a series of
PBs. His top swims placed him just 0.06 off a 50 freestyle age group
medal and also fourth in his 100 fly final, where he headed both Korting and
Dixon.
Saturday saw a long-standing Reading favourite
in action in the 100 breast grand
final.
Former club captain Alex Perrin – about to graduate from the University of East Anglia
- pushed Cardiff's Haigh all the way from lane 2. Two seconds inside-entry in
1:07.54, the swim was his best for a couple of years and came on a weekend when
he doubled as meet DJ and commentator when not in the water!
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The meet was a
landmark of a different sort for 22-year-old Emma Tarrant, who has decided to
call time on her competitive career. Tarrant, cheered throughout her last 100
free heat, has swum under six head coaches in 13 years with the club. Far from
being lost to the sport, she will continue to coach some of Reading’s youngest
members in the development squads.
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