Whittingham sisters fly duel
Shrewsbury swimmers were in action at Wolverhampton for the Stafford Apex long distance open. Stamina was the order of the day with events from 200m upwards!
'Friendly' sisterly rivalry conjured up the race of the weekend for Emma (15) and Sophie Whittingham (11) in the 200m fly. Drawn in adjacent lanes, they were neck and neck all the way with a mere tenth of a second separating them at the finish. They both smashed their previous best times, Emma by six secs (2.54.96) and Sophie by 9 secs (2.54.87). Adrenaline still pumping, Sophie went on to achieve a regional qualifying time in the 200IM (2.46.52) plus a PB over 200m breaststroke (3.10.67).
Oliver Henry (13) was into improvement 'bigtime' and started by demolishing his 400m IM best time by 18secs (5.40.90). then improving his 200 fly by 16sec (2.48.74). The personal highlight was in the 200m backstroke, a mere 2sec improvement on his previous best but a regional qualifying time with 2.35.72.
Josh Hatton (15) swam consistently with improvements over all three events entered. These were 200m breaststroke (2.43.61), 200m backstroke (2.40.87) and 200m freestyle (2.26.64).
Emily Marrs and Imogen Griffiths (15) stayed the distance for a pair of PBs. Emily improving by 9secs over 400m freestyle (5.06.57) and 200m backstroke (2.40.87). Imogen took 9 secs off her best 400m IM time with 5.34.21 and improved at 400m freestyle (4.56.37).
Gemma Almond (10) continued her steady improvement with 4 sec improvements over 200m IM (3.16.07) and 200m breaststroke (3.10.67). James Morris (10) clipped another sec off his 200m backstroke time consolidating on his regional qualifying time. Sarah Morris (12) improved at 200m breaststroke (3.19.40) and Philippa Hatton was 6 secs inside her 400m freestyle time with 5.13.96.
A small Junior squad performed at Wrexham the same weekend and congratulations are in order for Alex Charlesworth who won 3 gold medals setting new meet records over 25m freestyle and fly. Ellis Salisbury-Davis (10) secured bronze in the 25m backstroke (18.20). Sam Johns (12) reached the final of the 50m breaststroke, just missing the medals with his fourth place and time of 43.34.