Tigersharks Blaze a trail of Glory!

Tigersharks swimmers were certainly on top form this weekend as they produced fantastic time across the board at their Winter Open Meet this weekend. Three more swimmers qualified for this years National Competition bringing the total of swimmers qualified to date to 7, along with numerous District qualifications bringing the total to date to 31. Added to this were hundreds of Wiltshire County qualifications to make the weekend a very worthwhile event.

James Magness (15) struck gold with his first ever National qu ali fying time in the 200m Backstroke. His time of 2:10.28 also set a new Wiltshire County Junior record. Briony Merritt (11) was in superb form as she clocked her first National Qu ali fying time also in the 200m Backstroke with a blistering time of 2:37.81, she also came within half a second of her 100m Backstroke time. Nat ali e Montezuma (15) screeched to her first National time of 2007 in the 50m Frontcrawl in a time of 27.77 and just missed her 100m Backstroke time. She was joined by her team-mate Sophie Hawkins (14) who clocked NQT number three for 2007 with a time of 28.16 in 50m FC. Hawkins also produced an outstanding 400m Individual medley time of 5:14.54 to edge towards the required mark in that event. Alex Jones (15) was in phenomenal form in the 400m Individual Medley when he produced an outstanding swim to take him almost seven seconds inside his NQT. Alex now holds 9 National Qu ali fying times for 2007 with two more times only half a second away.

Aaron Lee and Dean Williamson both swam agonisingly close to NQT's. Lee (16) was just 0.60 of a second outside his 100m backstroke and Williamson (15) who qualified at the 800m FC last weekend was just 0.80 outside the 200m FC time and a second outside his 100 & 200m Butterfly times.

Sam Clayton (13) thrilled his coach and team-mates as he smashed his 200m Butterfly PB time to take himself less than 1.5 seconds away from his first NQT with a time of 2:21.26. Sophie Roberts proved she is a true National candidate when at just 10 years old she clocked a time of 1:17.48 on the 100m backstroke. Lauren Jones and Rosie Broad (12) were both in great shape. Jones had a great swim in the 100m & 200m breaststroke both in times well inside the District standard and Broad produced a fantastic swim in the 400m FC putting her back on track for Nationals this year.

Michaela Boniface (11) and Oliver Richmond (12) claimed their first District qualifying times for 2007. Michaela in a superb swim in the 200m Breast and Oliver in the 200m Backstroke. Kieron German (15) continues to amaze as he takes chunks off his times every time he swims an event, his best swims this weekend coming in the 200m Backstroke and 400m Frontcrawl where he gained the district qualifying time for the double banded 15/16 year olds. A return to Form Matthew Jones following two broken collar bones was outstanding in the 50 and 100m Frontcrawl events following very little training through the autumn and early winter months.

Rebecca Healy, Rachel Waine, Mellisa Glass, Thomas Howitt and Jacob Roberts all smashed personal best times set only a month ago in the Club Champs to take them within a whisker of their District times for 2007.

Timothy Newcombe and Daniel Butt were also in fine form reducing their personal best times by enormous margins and a return to form Rachel Russell stormed through in the 200m Butterfly to record her best time, by 8 seconds, in many months.

Tigersharks 9 and 10 year olds were swimming very well. Notably Louisana Toner and Rebecca Hussey both 9 who were unstoppable in producing PB's all weekend. Jake Hancock (9) made dramatic improvements on his FC swims as did Ella Luffman (11) in the Breaststroke and FC events.

Tigersharks now have 74 Wiltshire County Qualifiers, 31 South West Regional Qualifiers and

7 National Qualifiers up to 15 th January 2007 .

A hugely successful event with many new clubs supporting the gala and swimming well.

Meanwhile Jazmin Carlin (16) added to her every growing tally of National times as she notched up her 6 NQT in the arduous 1500m FC in the Welsh Dragon Meet at Swansea . Carlin who is on the Welsh Performance program proved unstoppable in her quest to set her mark.