PBs galore at the Tring Club Championships

Tring Swimming Club enjoyed four days of racing at their Club Championships last weekend

The club recorded 412 PBs out of 567 swims (73%), while 18 new county times, three new club bests and one regional time were also achieved.

Among the U9s, Nina Gething was outstanding as she won freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke, with seven-year-old Eva Doubler finishing second in each event.

Eva then swam 24.12s for 25m fly, just beating Morgan Slade and Sophie Bradley; Sophie fighting back by narrowly winning the 50m fly.

Edie Hawtin, Naomi Thomas and Erin Cave swam in their first races, while there was a big welcome to the boys who raced for the first time; Alexander Stephenson and Jacob Geller.

The 50m breaststroke was particularly close-run, and James Monks swam well in freestyle and backstroke.

The 9-year-old girls’ team were on top form, with Alice Weston and Charlie Mailey splitting the wins evenly, and Daisy Knight winning 50m backstroke with Anna Birch a narrow second.

Head coach Johnny Bradley said: “I was particularly impressed with the progress in technique this group have made, with Charlie and Daisy swimming excellent breaststroke, Alice and Chloe Sharp looking very promising on freestyle and backstroke, and Lili and Florence both swimming well.”

In the 10 to 11-year-old group, congratulations to Isobel Geller who won each race across the four days, achieving three new county times to go with three earlier, including one in all four strokes and the IM.

Isobel was pushed in various events by a group who are making very rapid progress – Hannah Knight swam an excellent 3m35s 200m IM, while Kiera Wharton came within 0.44s of a county time on 50m freestyle (35.67s) and Nicole McKenna and Amaya Stephenson both swam well across all strokes.

In the boys’ group there was a three-way battle between Josh Weston, Sam Pyefinch and Max Gething; all three achieved new county times with Sam now having hit 11, Josh seven and Max three.

Josh came out first in all the fly and breaststroke events, as well as the 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle and IM, and swam a really impressive 2m49s in 200m freestyle.

Max won 50m backstroke with Sam close behind, and Sam was outstanding in 50m freestyle with a new PB of 34.24s.

In the 12+ age group, there have been some fantastic improvements made in recent months.

Chris Hughes has worked incredibly hard and deserved some outstanding performances. 12 months ago his PB for 50m fly was 53.44s, at the weekend he won in a brilliant 33.15s and is now ranked eighth in Hertfordshire for his age. He also achieved big improvements in 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle.

Brianna Mazey took three fantastic freestyle wins – firstly a 400m freestyle in with 5m 1.56s, the fastest time set by any current member.

Brianna followed that up on Saturday with 29.03s over 50m, and then reached the top of the club rankings over 200m on Sunday with 2.22.01.

Tom Meacock has broken through with some great swims in recent months and improved even further over the weekend, in particular a fantastic race with Nathan Gething over 50m freestyle in 29.17s. Tom also set PBs across all four strokes.

Mia Boersma has made huge progress in a short time and again is progressing across all four strokes. Mia and Molly Bradley have both for qualified for the National ESSA schools finals at the London Aquatics Centre.

Finlay Miles is making great progress in freestyle and won a thrilling 50m breaststroke, edging out Michael Renkel and Tom Meacock in 39.96s.

Eleanor Terrett has worked really hard through injury recently and is a very promising butterflier, while there were excellent improvements too by Alicia Denton-Sparke, Daisy Knight and Marcia Billingham.

Fantastic wins also came from Chloe Woodruff (200m IM, fly), Molly Bradley (back, 100m free), Emma Killen (breaststroke, 400IM) and Michael Renkel (all strokes).

Head coach Johnny Bradley said: “With swimmers across the club making strong improvements, it’s a really exciting time as we prepare for the remaining Arena League rounds and then the Herts Major and Chiltern Leagues in the new year.

“Our teams are getting better all the time and we are a long way ahead of where we were at the same time last year.”