South East Summer Champs Weekend 2

The second weekend of the annual regional Championships was hosted by Wycombe leisure centre last weekend. 6 Woking swimmers made the journey as the senior swimmers went up against the top 15year olds and older for women and 16 year olds and over for men. 

Day 1 

Day one started with the men's 200 free as Fredrick Van der Leest  (17) swam a 2.03.08 to qualify for the first final ranked 6th. The Women’s 50 fly was heavily represented with 4 swimmers. Sadie Warmington (16) worked hard enough to pick up a PB (30.20) and improve her overall ranking by 4 to do enough to make it into the final. Abi Elford (15) improved on her time by almost a second to gain 12 places in the overall rankings with a 30.54. Tegan Gale (15) also made the final starting her busy weekend with a 30.26. Though Tegan had little time to rest with the 100 free up next, she pulled out her first long course sub minute with a 59.98. Placing her 2nd going into the final. 

The finals started with Fredrick Van der Leest managing to do enough to gain a place to finish 5th with a 2.03.23. Tegan and Sadie competed in the 50 fly final finishing 6th and 8th respectively. The first medal of the championship came in the 100 free with Tegan Gale going faster with an impressive 59.67. Well over a second faster than her PB before the championship and an impressive 9 places above her initial ranking. 

Session 2 saw Fredrick Van der Leest  do enough to make his second final in the 50 free, pulling out a 25.68 to place 7th, while Tegan Gale made another final in the 50 back placing herself 6th. Both finished their final in 6th place. 

Day 2

Day  2 saw Sophie King (17) go into her first swim with the 200 breaststroke. She finished second making it into the final with 2.40.75. Tegan Gale continued her success from day one to make another final, this time in the 50 free finishing with a 28.04. 

 Rita Luzan (16) soon followed with an impressive swim to reach her first Regional Final ranked second with a 28.01. Fredrick also performed a solid 55.47 to make it into the final of the 100 free.

The finals saw Tegan swim a PB and pick up her second Silver medal with a 27.63. Rita followed soon after, holding her nerve in the centre lane to pick up her first regional medal with a Silver and her first sub 28 second in a time of 27.99. Fredrick took inspiration from the Woking girls and pushed as close as he could to reach 4th in the final swimming a PB with a 55.47. 

Day 3

Sophie King kicked things off with the 50 breaststroke pushing for a 33.37 to make the final ranked third. Tegan Gale went in the 200 free gaining a decent PB with a 2.12.46 to finish 4th going into the final. Tegan was then back in the pool shortly after with the 100 fly to finish 8th just doing enough to make the final. Abi Elford gained another PB finishing 10th as second reserve with a 1.09.01. The last swim of the prelims went to Sophie King who gained another PB and made a final with a 1.04.43. 

To finish off the championships both Sophie King and Tegan Gale doubled up with two events each. Tegan started with the 200 free going faster with a 2.11.86 picking up a third Silver medal for her very successful weekend. Sophie King then finished off the weekend with the 100 fly finishing with a Bronze medal and a club record, swimming in a time of 1.03.93. 

Overall a successful weekend with Woking picking up 6 medals, 5 Silver and 1 Bronze and 1 club record.  At the end of the second weekend the men's points stands at 20 ranked 29th while our women’s points have shot up the table to finish an outstanding 8th with 71.5 points. The final weekend will continue at Winchester with the second weekend of the juniors on the 13th of May.