WEEK 1 RESULTS

Thanet's Piper Takes 400m Crown

The newly opened ‘K2' sporting complex which includes a 50m swimming pool at Crawley, West Sussex was the venue for this year's South East Region ASA Bagcat Championships and 14 Thanet Swim Club members competed in the first of the two weekend's events against the top swimmers in the region from Hampshire, the Channel Islands, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Sussex and the parts of Surrey, Middlesex and Kent that are outside London .

13 year old Keiron Piper started off his challenge with a strong swim in the 100m Freestyle, earning a 4 th place finish with a 1min 00.75secs long course time. Keiron followed that with a 6 th Place finish in the 200m Backstroke, recording 2mins 28.48secs.

Piper was determined to show his National's form in the 400m Freestyle. Right from the start, he headed the field and stretched the distance between his rivals more and more as the race progressed. The clock read 4mins 26.83secs as he touched home to gain the South East Region Crown and claim his Gold Medal, creating a new Personal Best in the process and ended up over 9 seconds inside the National Qualifying Time.

Piper went on to add an 8 th place finish in the 200m Individual Medley in 2mins 30.60secs and took 11 th place in the 100m Backstroke in 1min 11.75secs at the end of a long weekend.

Louise Gates got off to a flyer in her first event, the 13 year Girls 400m Freestyle. Gates produced a 5 th place finish, with a 4 second improvement on her previous Personal Best to record a 4mins 42.89secs swim, gaining her a second National Qualifying Time and breaking her own Club Records in both the 13/14 year and Open age groups.

Louise also gained 16 th place in the 200m Individual Medley in a time of 2mins 39.32secs. She came 30 th in the 100m Freestyle with a new Personal Best of 1min 06.03secs, then achieved 23 rd place in the 200m Backstroke in 2mins 41.04secs and finished with another new Personal Best, 5mins 27.81secs in the 400m Individual Medley gaining 9 th place.

Lacey Palmer produced a new Personal Best in the 400m Freestyle, knocking over 6 second off her previous time to gain an 11 th place finish in 4mins 49.12secs. Lacey gained another Personal Best time in the 200m Individual Medley, coming 23 rd in 2mins 41.69secs.

She followed that with another 11 th place finish, this time in the 100m Backstroke in 1min 12.85secs. In the 100m Freestyle, Lacey produced another new Personal Best, taking the 8 th place in 1min 03.05secs. Lacey finished off her weekend on another high, taking 5 th place in the 200m Backstroke with 2mins 34.38secs.

12 year old Evie Bunte had a good weekend, producing no less than 4 new Personal Bests. Evie claimed 13 th place in the 400m Freestyle in 5mins 01.18secs and then produced a 12 th place finish in the 200m Individual Medley, knocking nearly 3 seconds off her previous best time with a 2mins 44.01secs.

Another 1.25 second improvement in the 100m Backstroke gave her a 11 th place finish in 1min 16.89secs and then in the 100m Freestyle, Evie claimed 16 th place in a time of 1min 07.07secs setting yet another new Personal Best. Even after all that, in the 200m Backstroke, Evie still managed to shave a further 1.5 seconds off her previous best to record 2mins 43.22secs and take 14 th place.

13 year old Milly Henson had a busy schedule at the weekend. In the 100m Butterfly she came 12 th in a time of 1min 14.28secs and quickly followed that in the 200m Individual Medley, recording 2mins 43.46secs to come in 29 th place. In the 100m Freestyle, Milly gained a 38 th place finish in a new Personal Best time of 1min 06.98secs. Milly achieved 28 th place with a time of 2mins 44.51secs in the 200m Backstroke and completed her weekend with a 16 th place finish in the 400m Individual Medley with 5mins 46.08secs.

10 year old Ben Pond gained new Personal Best times in both his races at the weekend. In the 100m Freestyle he improved his time by over 4 seconds when he recorded 1min 16.94secs to claim 16 th place and in the 400m Individual Medley Ben claimed 9 th place in a time of 6mins 51.19secs, an improvement of over 6.6 seconds. Elisha Kennett, who is also 10 years old, claimed the 12 th place in the 100m Backstroke with a time of 1min 28.41secs, recording a new Personal Best by nearly 5 seconds. Elisha also gained 21 st place in the 200m Backstroke with a time of 3mins 11.55secs.

Jack Little, swimming in the 13 year age group came 17 th in the 100m Freestyle in 1min 02.73secs and earned 21 st place in the 400m Freestyle with a time of 4mins 55.76secs. In the 100m Butterfly, Jack swam a 1min 14.44secs to claim 13 th place and he finished with a 2mins 40.60secs in the 200m Individual Medley for 25 th place. 14 year old Matthew Fitt, earned himself 23 rd place in the 400m Freestyle with a time of 4mins 51.49secs.

11 year old Chloe Thorpe swam a new Personal Best of 5mins 22.37secs in the 400m Freestyle to record a 5.4 second improvement and claim a 19 th place finish. Chloe also gained a 37 th place finish in the 100m Freestyle with a time of 1min 13.33secs. Another 11 year old, Libby Henson, started off with a new Personal Best in the 100m Backstroke, recording 1min 22.44secs for 25 th place. Libby then came 29 th in the 100m Freestyle in 1min 12.48secs and completed her weekend with another new Personal Best in the 200m Backstroke with a 27 th place finish in 2mins 54.30secs.

Aaron Clements, who is 12 years old, swam well to claim 20 th place in the 200m Individual Medley in a time of 2mins 54.85secs. Charlotte Davies, who is also 12 year old, claimed herself 46 th spot in the 100m Freestyle in 1min 09.71secs and followed that with a 30 th place finish in the 200m Backstroke with a time of 2mins 48.39secs. Another 12 year old, Samantha Woodbridge, recorded 1min 10.06secs in the 100m Freestyle to claim 50 th place and a new Personal Best time.