South East Regional Championships 15 & Over

The Bank Holiday weekend saw the final stint of the Swim England South East Regional competitions with the turn of the 15&overs taking part at the Wycombe Leisure centre. 14 swimmers competed over the weekend with an outstanding 16 Finals. 

SATURDAY

Galahad Reeve (15) kicked off the weekend with the Mens 50 breaststroke achieving a PB in his sole race of the weekend with a 35.77. Masters swimmers Ben Smith (33.54) and Max Freedman (30.99) competed in the same event with Max doing enough to reach the final of the 18 & Over category ranked 7th. 

The 50 fly was the first event for the Women with Sophie King (18) and Tegan Gale (16) making the final with 28.97 and 29.75 respectively. Isabelle Townsend (17) swam over half a second PB to finish 9th just missing out on the final. 

Daniel Turner swam in the 100 backstroke with a 1.04.59 gaining a position from his entry standings to finish 11th. Not long after Both Isabelle and Tegan were back in the water for the Women's 100 free. Isabelle managed another PB to finish 11th with a 1.02.58 while Tegan pulled out an impressive 59.33 to head into the final ranked 2nd. Rita also swam in the 100 free finishing with a 1.02.97. 

3 swimmers over 4 events in the finals from session 1 on Saturday Saw Tegan finish 8th in the 50 fly and 4th in the 100 free. Max finished with a 30.90 to come 7th, while Sophie hit the wall in a time of 28.81 to take home a Silver in the 50 fly. 

The Afternoon session began with an impressive display from Annie Bailey (17) in her first ever Regional swim gaining a 3 sec PB in a time of 2.35.91. This was enough to make the final ranked 7th in the 17YO age group. 
The Men's 50 free saw Ben Platt (16) sneaking into the final finishing 8th with a 25.80. Alongside Ben were multiple Masters swimmers in Connor Brunt (24.89) Max Freedman (25.03) and James Norman (25.08).

Tegan Gale was back in the water again in the 50 backstroke qualifying for another final ranked 4th with a 31.71. While the heats session finished with the Women’s 100 breaststroke as Sophie King showed her dominance with a 1.12.29 to rank 1st. 

The Finals of the Saturday started with Annie’s first ever Regional Final, where many would crumble under the pressure, Annie managed to go even faster and finish in 6th with a time of 2.35.61. In impressive achievement considering this being her first ever regionals alongside having recovered from a broken ankle barely weeks before. Ben Platt was up next and swam faster with a 25.62 to finish 7th. Tegan swam a 31.77 in the backstroke final while Sophie King held on to her 1st place from start to end even with tough competition winning the Gold medal in a time of 1.12.69. 

SUNDAY 

The next day started off quiet with only Sophie Competing in the morning with the 200 IM. She managed enough to put herself 2nd going into the final. In the final though she managed to improve her time with a 2.24.29 others managed to step their swims father as Sophie hit the wall in 4th. 

The afternoon session started with Daniel Turner in the 50 fly finishing 14th with a time of 28.52. Tegan not long after booked her spot in the final with 27.03 in the 50 free. Daniel was back in straight after with the 200 back. Swimming a Long Course PB with a 2.21.80 to do just enough to reach his first Regional final. 

Women’s 100 back saw Tegan joined by Sadie Warmington (17) in her first swim of the weekend. Sadie swam a 1.08.79 to finish 6th going into the final. The day's heats finished with Ben Platt swimming the 100 free, gaining a PB with a 56.06. 

The finals of day 2 Started strong with Tegan holding on to her position to gain a Silver medal in a time of 27.23 in the 50 free while Daniel and Sadie had some tough finals with Daniel finishing 8th and Sadie finishing 7th. 

MONDAY

The Final day of the weekend began with the Women’s 50 breaststroke with Tilly Lockyer (16) pulling out a 40.44. Sophie King soon followed making the final with a 33.52. Daniel Turner was in his first of two events for the day with the 50 back finishing 10th in a 29.90. He followed it up soon after with the 100 fly finishing with a 1.03.77. 

The girls 100 fly was represented by 4 Woking swimmers. Everyone of them did enough to qualify for the final. Certainly a highlight of the weekend with Sadie finishing 6th, Tegan finishing 4th, Sophie finishing 3rd and Isabelle Finishing 6th to qualify her for her first Regional final. 

The Final session finished with Sophie improving her time but not enough to reach the top 3 with a 33.15 to finish 5th. Tegan then swam a 1.06.49 to end up 5th in the 16YO age group. While Sadie swam faster in the final with a 1.08.13 to finish 5th and Isabelle unfortunately slipping on the block at the start and playing catch up but doing enough to finish just outside her qualifying time with a 1.08.71. 

Overall a quality weekend with some outstanding swims. It was great to see a number of new finalists for Woking and many gaining huge experience at such a high level against such tough competition. We are immensely proud of finishing 11th in the medals table and 7th in the points table. Especially against such big clubs again Woking swimming club do an outstanding job of competing against our bigger rivals. Next up is the wait for the National window to close later this week to see who has learnt the right to compete at the biggest competition of the season. 

A huge thank you to all of our TMs who gave up their time to support us at the weekend, in which we will never be able to run these kinds of meets.