Woking Swimmers Shine at English Nationals

Woking  had four swimmers attending the National Summer Meet at the beginning of August, held at Ponds Forge Swimming Centre in Sheffield.  Our swimmers representing the club were Fredrick van der Leest (17), Rita Luzan (16), Lucy Wheeler (13) and Alex Platt (13). For all of them it was their first English National Competition individually (Rita having competed in the relays at British Summer Champs the year before; and Fredrick having competed at Dutch Nationals). A fantastic achievement and experience for them all.

Day 1

Heats

Lucy was our only swimmer for day one. She had qualified for 3 events over the week, her first being the 100m Breaststroke. She swam a strong race in a competitive age group finishing 17th in 1:20.59, a second off her PB and only 0.64s from making the final.

Day 2

Heats

Lucy was back with vengeance now with her favoured event, the 200m Breaststroke. In a well-paced swim, she finished the heats in 6th place and locked herself into her first national final in a time of 2:51.16, her second fastest swim just over 2 seconds off her PB.

Next up we had both Rita and Alex in the 50m Freestyle. With little room for error in the sprints, making finals was going to mean a well-executed race. Rita was up first with a strong swim setting a new personal best time, and her second time under the 28 second barrier, in a time of 27.96 and qualifying for her first final in 8th. Alex was up next and swam in the last heat as a 13 year old, racing the fastest seeds across the older age groups. She finished qualifying for the finals in 1st place with a new personal best time of 27.63 and rounding off a successful session for Woking making three out of three finals.

Finals

Lucy was up first with her 200m Breaststroke final. Swimming a very respectable race in her first national final, swimming faster than her heat swim, she touched in 8th place in a time of 2:50.16. This time still above her PB of 2:48.97 she set at Winchester, but she was happy to be getting closer to this again, posting her second fastest time ever in this event.

Alex was up next in the 50m Freestyle, swimming with drive and determination she touched on the wall in a close 2nd place, dropping even more time and finishing in an impressive 27.49sec.  This  broke a long-standing club record and ranking Alex 3rd in the country at the end of the season. A fabulous second place silver medal in her first Nationals!

Rita finished off the evening of finals with her 50m Freestyle. Racing a similar race to her heats swim she finished in 10th place in a time of 28.07, just 0.11 off her heat swim in the morning.

Day 3

Heats

Fuelled with the success of the girls making finals the night before. Fredrick was our only swimmer on day 3 competing in his 100m Freestyle event. Swimming a controlled, well-paced race, he finished in a new personal best time of 54.65 and making his first English Nationals final, qualifying in 8th place.

Finals

Fredrick came back for finals focused and driven. Swimming about the same pace in the first 50 as he did in the morning, on the second 50 he made his move swimming over 0.5s quicker on the second 50 than in the heats. He finished moving up 3 spots to finish in 5th and dropping more time to set a new personal best of 54.08.  An impressive end result catapulting Frederick from his top 20 seed going into the compeition to 5th in the final.

Day 4

Heats

After a  day of rest, Lucy was back for her final event, the 50m Breaststroke. She touched in 37.05 and finished in 15th concluding her National’s competition. 

Alex was in next for her 100m Freestyle. She finished in a time of 1:02.30 just outside her PB and narrowly missing out on the final by 1 spot, finishing in 11th, also concluding her nationals.

With all swimmers competing at their highest level of competition so far and everyone making a national final they should all be super proud and have positive thoughts to take away with them. We hope they reflect on their performances and come back to the new term with even more drive to compete at the national level and beyond. We also hope they pave the way for more of our Woking swimmers to qualify next summer.