Swimmers from Sedgefield District 75 Swimming Club continue to push themselves and the club to new heights during another few weeks of challenging competitions.
The Club had 6 swimmers competing at the Richmond Dale ‘April Fools’ gala at Leeds on 9th / 10th April. Despite only having only a small number of swimmers competing they came away with 9 medals between them. Matthew Bradley, who only competed on Saturday won gold medals in the 50 free and 200 IM and silvers in the 100 breast and 200 free. Niall Coulthard won silver in the 200 free and 50 fly and bronze in the 100 free. Leah Smith and Kate Tolley both medalled in the 50 back with Leah coming away with the silver medal and Kate the bronze. Katelyn Craig and Kate Carmichael also made the journey to Leeds and came away with long course personal best times in all their swims. For some of these swimmers it was their first time swimming at a 50m pool and it was a fantastic achievement for them all getting the qualifying times for a faster level meet.
During the week commencing 11th April, Hannah Featherstone represented the Sedgefield 75 at the British Championships. Amongst the best of British Swimmers Hannah started her week winning the Junior Girls 200 free also recording a personal best time in her swim of 2:02.03. She followed this with further amazing swims in 100 free (58.40), 200 IM (2.20.06 )and the 400 free where her time of 4.19.93 was fast enough that she made the Target Tokyo Final, a higher level final event for those aiming for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
This weekend it was the turn of Elisabeth Yaneske . On 22nd April 2016 Elisabeth won gold in the 800m at the Scottish Masters Short Course Championships in Aberdeen. In a time of 10:23.22 Elisabeth was 7 seconds faster than in this event last year and a minute faster than her closest competitor.
These are all great achievements from swimmers who train consistently well, and continue to improve as a result of their attendance, attitude and ability.