AIB TIGERS made their mark again in Crawley last weekend with some excellent swimming and a haul of personal bests.
Seven of the club’s quickest youngsters showed great promise at the South East Regional Championships, racing against some of the best southern swimmers of their age.
It was the first time many of the group had raced long-course yet coach Nathan Jégou said they came away with some fantastic results.
‘The group did really well – for the majority of them, this is either the first or second time they will have swam long-course. Most swam PBs or close to.’
The youngest of the bunch, ten-year-olds Garth Jackson and Daniel Blandin, swam well in the 200m freestyle, with the latter just missing out on a final.
Both got good times in the 100m and 200m breaststroke – Blandin finished in the top 15 in the 200m and went on to take fifth in the 100m final.
Eleven-year-old Ella Dias (pictured) and 12-year-old Emily Bashforth swam huge PBs in the 200m freestyle, Dias clinching a long course time of 2.29.2, and Bashforth taking three seconds off her previous time to hit 2.27.2.
The 12-year-old boys also swam some great races – Tony Manning got a PB in the 200m freestyle and swam well in the 800m freestyle, and Giovanni Guarino dropped times and won silver in the 200m breast-stroke and came fourth in the 100m, swimming his best-ever competition.
The oldest of the group, multi-Jeux des Iles medallist Katy Glendening, equalled her PB in the 200m butterfly and managed a top 15 placing in the 200 freestyle.
She now returns to full training as she prepares to swim 1,500m freestyle at the National Age Group Championships in July.
Jegou said: ‘It’s been a long season and it’s coming to the end, but we will now be training hard for the next five or six weeks as we have the end of season gala in Fareham, and we’ve also got ten AIB Tigers who will be competing at the Nationals in Sheffield, where the best of the UK will be.’
HSBC Dragons’ Jim Milner on the attack in last night’s 5-4 Mixed C victory over Grainville Troggs at Le Rocquier School
Picture: MORAG OBARSKA
