South East Regionals - Age Group Championships - Weekend Two

Regionals entered its final stage this weekend with the 2nd weekend of the South East Age Group Championships 2022 for the 14 and under age group. Again, it was K2 hosting the competition with an action packed weekend for Woking SC.

Day 1

The day started with the boys 800 free, Ryan Turner (12) set the tone with a strong swim holding off tough competition. Neck and neck with his closest competitor for almost 10 mins to show a gutsy finish for a 10.47 sec PB and a Silver Medal with a time of 10.27.76. Josh Hutchinson (11) started another busy weekend with the 200 IM gaining another PB with a 2.54.08.

The Second session saw 12 Woking athletes competing in 15 swims. Leading the charge for the girls was Verity Larwood (12) with an improvement on her time touching in a 37.33. She was joined by Violette Hornzee (13), Tegan Gale (14) and Ella Pollock (14). The 50 Freestyle saw Ryan Grealou (14) put in a solid 0.45 sec PB with a 28.21 gaining an overall ranking of 15 places to finish 19th. Lucy Wheeler went into a tough contest for the 200 breaststroke doing more than enough to reach the final with a 3.02.95. Both Josh Hutchinson and Neco Truter (13) swum hard in the gruelling 200 fly, dropping their times by 10.61 (3.05.54) and 5.51 (3.06.10) respectively. Neco doing enough to rise up the rankings by 4 spots while Josh did enough to qualify 6th going into the final. The PBs continued to drop with the girls 100 free seeing Alex Platt (12) dropping a huge 3.93, improving her overall ranking by 19 places. Tegan Gale followed suit with a PB of 0.55 with her first ever sub 1.01 LC perfectly with a 1.00.99 to qualify 3rd fastest going into the final. Ryan Turner went into his 3rd race of the day pulling out a solid 1.19.64 while older brother Daniel (14) pulled out a solid 1.14 sec PB gaining 8 places in the rankings with a 1.11.28.

The Finals action started with Lucy Wheeler in the 200 breaststroke. With 4 girls within half a body length for most of the race Lucy held her own with an impressive final 50 to gain a well-deserved Silver Medal in a PB time of 3.01.45. Next saw Josh trying to repeat his impressive Heat swim in the 200 fly. Only 0.78 off his heat time was enough to better his overall ranking to finish an outstanding 5th place (3.06.32). In the final swim of the day for Woking SC, we saw Tegan Gale in the 100 free. Showing her experience in the 100 free, she managed to drop her time even further with a 0.52 sec pb (1.07 pb from her entry time) picking up a solid bronze medal in the process (1.00.47).

Day 2

The final day started with the boys 50 breaststroke. Ryan Grealou repeated his impressive performance from the day before with a 1.05 sec pb. This moving him 15 places up the rankings to finish 13th with a 36.26. The girls 50 fly followed shortly after with an impressive 5 girls competing for Woking SC. Alex Platt, Ellie Macleod (11) and Evie Owen (12) all raced together in the same heat, which seemed to spur them all on with Alex only 0.06 off her pb (36.22) and Ellie Macleod gaining a pb (35.76). But it was Evie Owen who proved to be a cut above though with an excellent 1.12 sec PB improving her ranking by 11 places with a 34.72. Ellie Macleod had little time to rest though as she went into her next event with the 200 free (2.33.72). With Violette Hornzee (2.25.68) and Abi Elford (2.22.06) following in quick succession. 

The session finished with Lucy Wheeler in 100 breaststroke. Qualifying third into the final with a 1.26.29, Lucy continued her excellent record of stepping up in the final, swimming faster than her heat with a 1.25.45. Holding her nerve, she touched out her closest competitor by 0.08 bringing her Medal tally to 2 Silver Medals at these championships.

The final session of the weekend saw Josh Hutchinson finishing off an impressive 11th Swim from the championships. A huge achievement to qualify for so many, especially with 6 of those swims being 200M events or more. No easy feat, though Josh showed great growth and learnt so much from the championship for such a young competitor.

Abi Elford had the last swim for Woking SC in one of the hardest events in the roster with the 400 IM. With a dominant fly and freestyle swim, she managed to PB with a time of 5.39.70 and to move up the rankings by 5 places.

We are proud of our team

As we step back and reflect on the championships it is safe to say as a coaching team, we are proud of our team. There was a great energy on poolside with swimmers supporting each other, showing great professionalism and really embracing the challenge of competing against the best in the South East. We can proudly say that 30 swimmers raced over the period of the three weekends gaining enough points to finish an outstanding 14th from over 120 clubs.

A huge thank you to the volunteers and officials that helped support the running of competition. Without you guys we would not be able to do what we love. And well done to all the swimmers who competed.

Results from Day 1

Finals:

Results from Day 2

Finals: