Swimming Records Broken At Championships
The Schroder’s Summer age group championships continued on Saturday night [May 18] with records being broken during the night’s finals.
“This was an amazing night of swimming at the BASA pool at Saltus”, said National Coach Ben Smith. “Maddy Moore had some issues with her goggles in the morning heats of the 100 free but in the finals she was all about business. In 40 years of the modern era of Bermuda swimming we had only seen 5 female swimmers break the 1:00 barrier in the 100 meter freestyle.
“Tonight the just turned 13-year-old joined that elite group. The record was 1:01.14 but Maddy lowered it to 59.46. This was a special swim and electrified the pool for the rest of the night.
“In the very next heat Shannon Hassell swam 1:01.13 to set her 2nd AAA time which makes her eligible for selection to this summer’s CCCAN Championships in Costa Rica. Jayson Hassell followed his sister and hit his A time in the 100 free which makes him eligible for the National training team.
“After this we saw multiple personal bests and some fast duels between many of our top male swimmers. One of the most impressive swim was from Dejan Wellman who came in with a personal best of 57.04 but raced to a 55.18.
“The 200 backstroke was the next event up for grabs and the record breaking continued. Finn Moseley took nearly 2 seconds off his record from the morning heats to swim a 3:32.76 on his way to win the 8 and under event. The rest of the backstroke events were strong but it was in the 50 fly where the records were taken by a trio of swimmers.
“Emma Harvey in the 11-12 swam 31.14 taking the record from Ashley Yearwood set in 2007. Maddy Moore who has just starting to sample butterfly swam 30.56 to take the 13-14 record from Ashley Aitken set in 1999. Jesse Washington followed the girls lead with his 27.09 which beat the 28.14 set in 2001 by Darren woods.
“The 50 back and 100 IM saw several close races and even more personal best swims. The night was finally capped off when Shannon Hassell swam the 400 free where she lowered her personal best from 4:58.67 to her new 4:45.81 which took the record of Ashley Yearwood of 4:46.90 from 2008.
“Tomorrow [Sunday May 19] will be the last day of competition and expectations are high that more records will tumble and the new resurfaced facility will see some spectacular races.”
