Swimming: Best of Best #2 Report
Ben Smith, National Coach and Sharks Swim Club Head Coach reported Best of Best #2 was a meet with great atmosphere and fast swimming.
Out of the 69 swimmers entered from Sharks 39 swimmers had personal best in 2 or more events. Mitch Gariepy was back on record from when he dropped close to 5 seconds off his personal best to set a new age group record in the 100 IM. Nick Patterson who set 3 records in Best #1 continued his fine form with another record in the 400 IM. Madelyn Moore had a very strong swim meet and was able to take 5 seconds off of the 9-10 girls 800 free record.
From a National point of view D’Andra Seymour dropped close to a second in the 50 free to make her ‘A’ time which qualifies her to be on the National training team. She will be receiving her invitation this week. Michelle Caza and Shannon Hassell both hit their qualifying times for Carifta to become the 15th and 16th qualifiers. Relays were added to the meet this year and it always adds a level of excitement to the meet with cheering and support for the swimmers from each team.
They took this opportunity to have the 11 and 12 boys Carifta relay team test their ability as a team. Shannon Botelho, Mitch Gariepy, Charlie Pilgrim and Jess Washington were very impressive in shattering the age group record by over 5 seconds.
The local training camp being held from March 26th to the 30th. This will be followed by the Florida training camp from March 31st to April 7th where most of our Carifta team will be preparing in a 50 meter pool.
Pictured above are thirteen out of the sixteen swimmers who will be competing in the CARIFTA Games 2011. Photo taken by Doug Patterson
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Richard Goodwin, National Coach and Harbour Swim Club Head Coach was pleased with the results from Harbour. Shannon Hassell made both of her ‘A’ standards on the day, in 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke, to qualify for selection for the team going to the 2011 CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Barbados.
Emma Harvey achieved ‘A’ standards in the 50m and 200m freestyles, Ashley Irby achieved ‘A’ standards in 100m individual medley, 100m freestyle and 50m backstroke, and Charlie Pilgrim achieved an ‘A’ standard in the 50m freestyle. Emma, Ashley and Charlie each achieved personal bests in each of their swims on Saturday.
Other notable swims by Harbour included Tyler Smith who achieved an ‘A’ standard in the 200m freestyle, Sophie Clare who achieved a ‘BB’ standard in the 50m backstroke, Alyssa Paynter who achieved ‘BB’ standards in the 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke, Alex Pilgrim who achieved ‘BB’ standards in the 50m butterfly and 100m individual medley and Lizzie Thresh who achieve a ‘BB’ standard in the 100m breaststroke, which fulfills club the requirement for overseas travel.
The most outstanding event for the club was the girls’ 9 and 10 years 4 x 50m freestyle relay of: Emma Harvey, Sophie Clare, Alyssa Paynter and Ashley Irby which set a new age group record of 2:28.75.
A total of 61 club swimmers participated in the meet.
One other highlight worth noting was the 50m backstroke race between Jesse Washington and Charlie Pilgrim, who both improved their times by over a second. They train together on the Bermuda National Swim Training Team.
Junior Coach Elise Cooper reported the Dolphin Swim Team had 39 swimmers in the water competing in 112 individual events, achieving 61 personal best times.  A fun swim was between brother and sister Joshua and Madson Irvine in the combined 100m Butterfly event .
