A group of Pembrokeshire’s best swimmers grabbed four medals and clocked a load of personal best times at the Swansea Aquatics Long Course Open Meet.
The meet, held from 12th to 14th May, attracted a high class group of swimmers from across Wales, England and even one club from Ireland.
The Pembrokeshire County Swimming (PCS) squad rose to the challenge, notching up a 77% personal best rate at the gala, at the Wales National Pool in Swansea.
Sean Barrett shone for PCS, bagging a gold and silver medal in the 100m breaststroke and 200 individual medley (IM) respectively.
The Haverfordwest swimmer struck gold in the boys’ 13 to 14 year old breaststroke after hitting the wall in 1:12.31, dropping 0.62 seconds off his best time. He powered to silver in the IM race in a time of 2:25.43.
Charlie Shiels also raced to silver in the 11 to 12 year 100m breaststroke in a speedy 1:23.67. The Pembroke youngster also finished 5th in the 200m IM in a time of 2:46.17.
Craig Nelson, head development coach at PCS, said: “The PCS coaching team were delighted with the results from the weekend. It was a great step, moving forward for the training cycle.”
PCS is a partnership between Pembrokeshire County Council and the county’s six competitive swimming clubs – Haverfordwest Seals; Fishguard Flyers; Pembroke & District; Tenby Dolphins; Milford Tigers; and Preseli Panthers. It provides talented young swimmers with a recognised coaching pathway through to national and international level competitions.
Outside the medals, there were some equally impressive performances as swimmers smashed their personal best times.
Abbie Williams dropped a massive 27 seconds to finish 5th in the 800m with a new personal best of 9:51.04 in the 13 to 14 year age group.
In the girls’ 13 to 14 year 100m butterfly, Bethan Jones finished 6th in a time of 1:13.35.
Arabella Haley, from Tenby, raced to 6th spot in the 15 and over 100m backstroke in 1:09.19. Her PCS colleague, Lucy Harding, was not far behind in 7th place, touching in 1:11.79.
Haley also finished in 6th in the 50m freestyle ‘splash and dash’ in a time of 29.45 seconds.
Rory Andrews dropped 1 second from his 200 IM time in the boys’ 11 to 12 event, with the Haverfordwest youngster finishing in a time of 2:47.33.
Nelson said: “Well done to everyone from Pembrokeshire County Swimming who took part in the weekend.”
Thanks to Paul McRae for the photos
of Louisa Twigg.
