Portsmouth Level 1 Easter Meet 2016

Whilst most of the nation was tucking into their Easter eggs, a number of Bluefins swimmers were competing at the Portsmouth Level 1 Open Meet over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

This meet is longer in duration than most, taking in a full three days, with an additional session for the distance events being held on the Thursday evening. The meet has the added benefit of incorporating a number of finals, and it was great to see Bluefins swimmers taking part in these.

With over fifty Long Course (50 metre Olympic size pool) personal best times being recorded by Bluefins swimmers, there was lots of exciting racing to keep the team buzzing.

Charlyne LeBosse did both herself and the team proud with some excellent performances in the Butterfly events on the Friday, recording a two second lifetime best in the 100 metre event which was enough to secure her 4^th place in the 14 years & under final, and then another personal best time in the 50 metre event saw her place 3^rd in the event and in earn a Bronze medal. Charlyne’s strong work off the turns and underwater work really made a superb difference to her swims, and it’s safe to say she’s well on her way to making this part of her racing a real signature skill!

Bluefins swimmers also featured prominently in the Breaststroke event held on Friday, with Amelia Rugman & Amelia Trist both racing well in the 14 & under final of the 100 metre event. It was also great to see Mairead Barker back racing after a short break from competitions. Mairead is a Breaststroke specialist and one of the teams most experienced swimmers, having competed previously in National Championship Finals. Mairead showed good form and also made the final for the 15 & over age group.

Millie Rugman qualified for another final, this time in the 50 metre Breaststroke event on the Saturday, and in a very close race narrowly missed attaining a coveted Gold medal in a cracking time of 36.73 seconds. Saturday also saw Molly Goffin, an experienced National Championship qualifier, swim in her first final of the weekend, this time in the 200 Individual Medley event. Molly was just shy of her lifetime best in the final, recording a time of 2.34.71 and finishing seventh overall.

Julia Lebosse was the third Bluefins swimmer to qualify for a final on Saturday, this time in the Sprint 100 Freestyle event. Julia showed a great turn of pace straight off the blocks, and kept her stroke rate up high enough to secure a lifetime best of 63.68 seconds.

As the final events consisted of two age groups, the 14 years & under, and the 15 years & over, it was always going to be tough for the younger swimmers to record times fast enough to get them into finals at this meet. However, this didn’t deter the two youngest members of the team, Conor Cherrington and Alex Heath, from aiming high and vying for medals. Connor had some superb races and on the Sunday came away with no fewer than 4 Gold medals in the 10 & under age group. In the 50 metres Freestyle event, Conor was actually over three seconds faster than the second placed competitor! Alex also showed a great turn of speed in both the 50 Freestyle and Backstroke events, securing 4^th place in the Freestyle, and a well deserved silver medal in the Backstroke.

Following on from Julia’s excellent performance in the 100 metres Freestyle the previous day, she also qualified for the shorter 50 metre Freestyle final on the Sunday. Julia had a good swim on this, the last day, and narrowly missed recording a new lifetime best in the event by 0.05 seconds!

The 200 metres Breaststroke finals were also held on the last day, and Bluefins had five swimmers taking part in these. After a long weekend, this Breaststroke event was always going to be demanding for any swimmer, and it was probably going to be more about racing the other swimmers in the final and not so much about hitting lifetime best times. Mairead Barker and Molly Goffin were in the 15 years and over age group and attained 2^nd and 5^th placings respectively, and in the younger age group, Millie Trist got 4^th place and Julia LeBosse not far behind in 6^th. Mitchell Coombes was the other Bluefins representative in a final for this event, and it was great to see him race with some of the best technique he’s ever performed!   A really well judged race saw him reduce his season best time to 2.30, narrowly missing his lifetime best of 2.29.