Coaches Comment On Weekend Swim Meet

May 1, 2013

The Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association held the Best of Best Swim Meet this past weekend.

Ben Smith, National Swimming Coach/Head Coach of Sharks Swimming Club, said: “Saturday marked the close of the Best of Best Swimming series at the BASA pool at Saltus. All 3 of these meets sponsored by Best Shipping have seen very strong results from the swimmers from all clubs. It was really good to see so many personal best times as the season gets close to the Championship portion.”

In terms of the Sharks Swimming Club, Mr. Smith commented: “The Bermuda Sharks Swim Club was very proud of the results that we had from several of our swimmers from different levels of the programme. We had two swimmers make the standard to be invited to the BASA National Training Programme. Izzy Dutranoit and Jessie Bruton both lowered their times and hit the A standard and will be happy to join the early morning practices in the near future.

“It was good to see Lisa Blackburn back in form with her strong 100 free swim. Maddy Moore continued her spectacular season with a record breaking day. She had 3 events and a relay and was able to break a record in all 4 of those events. Her 100 freestyle time of 1:00.84 lowered her own record by a whole second. Jesse Washington was also in record form where he swam personal best times in his 3 individual events and was able to set records in 3 of his 4 swims. In the 100 freestyle and the 50 free he took the records from Olympian Roy-Allan Burch who set them in 2000.

Mr. Smith continued: “In the 5th Development meet of the season we continued to see great enthusiasm from this group of swimmers. It was very encouraging to see several more swimmers hit their B standard and be able to participate in the standards meets in the future.”

Richard Goodwin, National Swimming Coach and Head Coach of Harbour Club said: “Emma Harvey led the way for Harbour Swimming Club, by eclipsing two age group records in the 11 and 12 year old age group. Her 200 individual medley swim of 2:38.41 broke a 26 year old record set by Olympian Jenny Smatt back in 1987 by almost a second; whilst her 100 individual medley time of 1:14.64 took 1 ½ seconds off the previous record set by Ashley Yearwood in 2007.

Ashley Irby also had a great meet, by posting three personal best times; highlighted by an 8 second drop in the 400 freestyle. Joining the list of swimmers who each managed three personal bests in the meet were: Cameron and Max de St.Croix, Jack Harvey, Jessie Marshall, Max McCrimmon, Alyssa Paynter and Anna Wilcox.

Finally, Harvey, Irby and Paynter were joined by Lynsey Palmer in breaking the 4 x 50 girls’ medley record by 6 seconds in a new time of 2:23.94.”

Dolphins Swim Club Head Coach, Barry Hanson, added “I am pleased that our swimmers are continuing to improve their performance in the pool as many had PB’s in the majority of their races. We had a number of swimmers that placed in the top three over the series of the three meets that started in February. All of our swimmers have been working hard and the results are a testament to that.”

Mr. Smith finished by saying: “Our collective thanks are extended to David Sousa, Joe Vieira and Judy Hagen from BEST Shipping, who sponsored the “Best of the Best” Series of Three Swim Meet. Their patronage and support allows us to offer the children a wonderful series of competitions which serve to raise the standard of national swimming in Bermuda.”

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