Tigersharks and Swindon Dolphins dominated the first session of the 2005 Wiltshire County Championships winning 8 gold medals each with only 2 going to other Clubs. Marlborough College's impressive 8 lane 25 metre pool was the fast venue for the 800m and 1500m distance freestyle events.
Without doubt the top swim of the day was produced by Tigershark's Jazmin Carlin who was in scintillating form. Swimming in the final heat of the 800m her time of 8 minutes 56.64 seconds was genuinely World Class for a 14 year old. It was good enough for her to retain the County Junior and Senior Championships, which she won last year, and also take gold in the 14 years age group. Her time broke both Championship and age group record.
The only swimmer who was not destroyed by Carlin's awesome 800m performance, was her Tigershark's training partner 16 year old Hayley Wood who won Gold in her age group and Silver in the Senior Championship thanks to a time of 9.26.79, which was also an age group record. Tigersharks other 800m age group medallist was 12 year old Hayley Towner who won Bronze with a 10 second personal best (PB) time of 10.34.85.
Whilst Tigersharks achieved a clean sweep in the Championships, it was Dolphins who took the honors winning the majority of the 800m age group Golds. However Tigersharks went on to dominate the 1500m freestyle from start to finish.
Mathew Jones set the standard winning Gold in the 12 years age group with a 54 second PB of 18.35.57 and finishing almost a minute ahead of Silver medallist Jamie Butler from Corsham. Going into the event Alex Jones was seeded to win the 13 years age group, however Melksham's Robert Johnson swimming in the heat before Jones threw down the challenge with a terrific time of 17.40.19. This meant that the Tigersharks swimmer would have to swim a 16 second PB and go 24 seconds inside the National Qualifying Time (NQT) to win Gold. He responded quite magnificently to the challenge finishing in 17.22.90 and winning the Gold by 18 seconds.
The 14 year old Championship went to Andrew Theban of Trowbridge with Tigershark's Aaron Lee's PB of 18.11.57 being good enough to claim Silver. The 15 year old age group was expected to be a close race between Chris Harber of Dolphins and Shaun Bracey of Tigersharks. However Bracey swam bravely from 200 metres with an injured shoulder. Despite amazingly refusing to stop with the injury, it was not surprisingly that he was unable to challenge Harber's fast time and had to settle for Silver.
In the final heat, following the injury to Bracey, Harber was the only swimmer to challenge Tigershark's Grant Turner for the Senior Championship but Turner broke away after 800m to set up a 10 second lead which was never threatened. Turner's time of 16 minutes 46.85 seconds saw him win the Senior Championship and the 16 years age group titles. Jason Dunford from Marlborough College won the 17 years age group.
Tigershark's 13 year old Alex Jones's impressive swim to win his age group also meant that he won Silver in the Junior Championship and Bronze in the Senior. Tigersharks other 1500m medallists were James Magness and Paul Chilcott. Magness's PB of 19.55.76 won Bronze in the 12 year age group, whilst Chilcott's brave swim of 18.54.49 in the final heat also saw him win the Bronze medal for 16 year olds.
The session finished with Tigersharks and Dolphins each winning 8 Gold medals with 1 going to Trowbridge and 1 to Marlborough College. Dolphins won more Gold in the 800m age groups, with Tigersharks dominating the 1500m plus winning 3 of the 4 Championship titles.
Tigershark's Coach Phil Millard was very pleased with the performances of his swimmers which he said,” demonstrated their endurance fitness levels and was pay back time after all the hard work which they had put into the training pool” “All together 7 new Championship records were set and 6 of these were swam by our swimmers”, said a proud and delighted Millard.
Next weekend Clubs will return to the league action with the third and final preliminary round of the Wiltshire Winter League.
