Seven swimmers from Fishguard Flyers showcased fine skills to rack up a stack of personal best times at the West Wales Junior Development Meet where St Dogmaels swimmer Zac West was on top form winning five out of five.
Another to impress was Sammy Montgomery who also clinched five events as the club’s young competitors (aged 9 to 12) took the National Pool in Swansea by storm on Saturday 17 June, with five of the seven flyers securing a top three finish in the Pentathlon – two gold, two silver and a bronze.
Swimmers were entered in five events – all four main strokes plus an individual medley (IM) – a race utilising all four strokes. The combined times of all those races determined the winner of the Pentathlon in each age group.
It proved to be a good day for the boys, with both Zac West, 11, and Sammy Montgomery, 9, storming to Pentathlon gold after a string of strong swims.
Zac put all the hard work at training into practice, with the St Dogmaels youngster winning all five events. This included his first time for the 100m butterfly of 1:36.05 and an 11 second improvement on his 200m IM to touch in 3:09.80.
Sammy seized his chance to shine by also winning all five events. The stand out performance for the young Flyer was cutting almost 5 seconds off his previous best for the 100m freestyle to hit the wall in 1:33.98. He also took nearly 3 seconds off his 50m breaststroke to finish in 58.44.
Martha Owen, coach at Fishguard Flyers, said: “Well done everyone. These results are amazing and are a standard for the club’s younger swimmers to aspire to and for all of us to be proud of.”
Victoria Horne, 9, grabbed silver with some powerful swimming, the pick of which was a 6 second improvement on her 100 IM to finish in 1:40.22. She also sliced 3 seconds off her 50m breaststroke to touch in 54.62.
Kayleigh Reed, 11, continued her good form by grabbing silver. The Llechryd youngster powered to a 7 second improvement in the 200m freestyle to hit the wall in 2:54.34. She also won the backstroke race with a time of 1:30.11, knocking almost 2 seconds off her previous best.
Rhiannon Clapham, 11, rounded off Flyers medal haul with bronze after some gutsy swims in the more gruelling events. She cut 3 seconds off her 100m butterfly to touch in 1:46.44 and slashed four seconds off her previous time in the 200m freestyle to finish in 2:55.35.
Outside the medals, Alexa Horne, 10, showcased the full range of her elegant strokes. She gave a fine account of herself with a near-30 second improvement in the 200m freestyle to touch in 3:09.82, plus almost 7 seconds slashed from the 100m backstroke to finish in 1:37.55.
Evan Curtis, 11, completed 3 of the 5 events, but was forced to end his day early after feeling some muscle strain. However, he performed admirably before this, speeding to second place in the 100m breaststroke in 1:48.32. He also notched up his first time for the 100m backstroke of 1:38.38.
