TIGERSHARKS BOY WONDER!

Tigersharks BagCat swimmers (boys 10–14 & Girls 10-13) wrapped up their final District weekend in style with a total of 5 gold, 15 Silver and 5 Bronze medals and a massive 82 top eight finalists.

Tigersharks Boy Wonder and most successful swimmer was Joshua Wheeler (10). Already a National Qualifier Joshua entered nine events and finished in a medal position in every event. His final tally was Bronze in the 100 Backstroke, Silver in the 200 & 400 Individual Medley, 100 & 200 Butterfly and 200 Backstroke and Gold in the 100, 200 and 400 Frontcrawl. Josh also received the Silver trophy for the overall BagCat competition in the 10 year old age group – a fantastic achievement for this young swimmer in his first major competition. Joshua now looks forward to swimming his favoured events of 100, 200 and 400 Frontcrawl at the National Age Groups in July.

Eleanor Hussey (10) started the first day of the second weekend off with a bang when she powered to victory and the gold medal in the 400 Frontcrawl in what was an enormous personal best time. Team mate Sophie Hawkins (12) also battled a strong field of swimmers in her age group to take the Silver. Tigersharks supporters were out in force and the excitement was at fever pitch in the boys ten year 100 Frontcrawl. Josh Wheeler and Jason Butt were placed 3rd and 4th going into the final of this event. The boys were in devastating form taking the race on and storming through the field to Gold for Wheeler and a great Silver for Butt again in personal best times. Alex Jones and Dean Williamson swam great races in their final to finish 4th and 8th in PB times.

Breaststroke specialist Lauren Jones did not let the supporters down in her 200 event. She swam the perfect race to take the Silver Medal in a huge personal best time. Hannah Brown and Natalie Montezuma were also in great form to make the final of the same event in the 13 years and produced great swims to finish in 7th and 8th place.

In the boys 200 Backstroke, which is always a strong event for the sharks the swimmers put on a great show. Joshua Wheeler (10) was on form to take the Silver and team mate Kane Baker who only turned 10 last week, powered through the field to take 4th place in the same final. James Magness and Alex Jones (13) both produced great swims to take the Silver and Bronze in their finals.

In the 100 Butterfly Lauren Jones, Eleanor Hussey and Natalie Montezuma all swam well to make final places finishing in 5th, 6th and 8th respectively. In the 200 Individual Medley Josh Wheeler put on a great show again to take the Silver Medal and Dean Williamson (13) produced a powerful swim to overhaul a strong Plymouth swimmer to take 4th place.

Day four started as well as all the other days had with Gold medals in the first events. Joshua Wheeler (10) finished a clear three seconds ahead of the next swimmer in his age group to take his 3rd Gold medal. Alex Jones (13) swam a strong race to snatch the Bronze by less than a second from Bath University.

Eleanor Hussey and Lauren Jones (10) continued their winning ways when they took Silver and 4th places in the 100 Frontcrawl. Sophie Hawkins (12) left it until her last event and last chance to plough through the field to snatch 4th place but more importantly her 2nd National Qualifying time for the National Age Groups in Sheffield in July.

Dean Williamson was in top form this weekend and in what has become his 3rd stroke he swam a superb race and battled hard to claim the Silver medal in front of a strong Soundwell swimmer. In the girls 200 backstroke Eleanor Hussey and Lauren Jones (10) swam well to place 5th and 6th in their final and Natalie Montezuma (13) took the race on in her final to power through the field from lane eight to place 5th. Rosemary Broad (11) who has had an outstanding competition produced an enormous personal best time in the 200 Backstroke to make the final in 8th place, not happy with that she produced yet another astonishing swim to move up into 7th place.

Wonder boy Wheeler delighted supporters and his coaches when he stormed to a silver medal position in the final of the 100 Butterfly having gone into the race in 4th place, rounding off a fantastic two weekends of swimming for the young shark. Dean Williamson (13) was once again in astounding form in his final where he produced yet another personal best swim and a cracking 5th place in what was a very strong field. Team mate Aaron Lee (14) swam very well to take 7th place in his final.

Lauren Jones (10) was not going to be denied her third medal of the competition in the 200 Individual Medley. Going into the final in 4th position she refused to allow the Plymouth swimmer to beat her and was rewarded with the Bronze medal. Eleanor Hussey also 10 finished in a creditable 7th place after a gruelling weekend of swimming. Dynamo, Rosemary Broad once again produced a huge personal best time to make the final of the eleven year olds where she finished in 7th place and Team mate Hayley Towner took two and half seconds off her heat time to finish in 7th place in her final.

In the 4 x 100 Frontcrawl relays the young sharks swam good races to place 4th in the boys (Matt Jones, Aaron Lee, Dean Williamson & Alex Jones) and 5th in the girls event (Sophie Hawkins, Siobhan Tierney, Hayley Towner & Stephanie Millin).

The Sharks finished their weekend off with 10 overall BagCat finalist's winners:-

Joshua Wheeler (10) 2nd
Jason Butt (10) 4th
Kane Baker (10) 5th
Eleanor Hussey (10) 5th
Alex Jones (13) 6th
Dean Williamson (13) 7th
Sophie Hawkins (12) 7th
Lauren Jones (10) 8th
Rosemary Broad (11) 8th
Natalie Montezuma (13) 8th

Tigersharks finished the BagCat Competition easily the TOP WILTSHIRE CLUB and an amazing 3rd PLACE OVERALL in the Western District. A fantastic performance by the young Tigershark Swimmers. Coaches Phil Millard and Lesley Leffers were delighted with their swimmers performances the best for some years. Tigersharks now look forward to the National Competition where they have eleven swimmers competing in 46 events again the most competitors for many years.