Indoor Sports - with PembrokeshireSport.co.uk

Swimmers excel in Dragon Meet

Pembrokeshire County Swimming got off to a good start in 2011 at the Dragon meet at the Wales National Pool in Swansea, despite the fact that many Pembrokeshire swimmers found themselves in numerous finals and had to limit their number of races.    
“Some also had to repeat swims close together - they did well to compete in the events back to back,” said Paul Dowey, Pembrokeshire Leisure's swimming development coach.
Swimmers were attempting to beat last year’s total of 24 finals from 10 swimmers and six medals from three swimmers. In a reduced field of competition in comparison to previous years, Pembrokeshire have almost surpassed last season’s totals.

Finals galore

There were finals from Sion Bevan, Michael Hire, Talia Merriman, Jemma Hurds, Isabel Johns, Isabelle Davies, Jordan Harding, Oliver Crawford, Kelsey Williams, Sam Lewis, Ross Sutton, Daniel Thomas, Carys Thomas, Hollie Thomas, Hannah Saunders, David Williams, Michael Hire, Hazel Fox, Ashleigh Willars, Amelia Davies and Daniel Picton.

Medal success

Medals were picked up by Talia, David, Carys, Hollie, Talia, Isabel, Jordan, Sam Lewis, Ross, Daniel Thomas, Carys, Michael, Sion, Kelsey and Amelia.
There were 77 finals from 22 swimmers with 15 of those swimmers collecting medals. The final medal tally was 31 medals, with eight gold, eight silver and 15 bronze.
There were gold medals for Talia Merriman in 200m backstroke and David Williams in 50m freestyle. Kelsey Williams and Jordan Harding received medals in the under-16 events despite having more than three years left in the same age group.

Swim of the day

The swim of day was the breaststroke trio of Hollie Thomas, Hannah Saunders and Kelsey Williams who led the assault in the 100m breaststroke. Four Pembrokeshire swimmers took the top four places going into the final, with Carys deciding to focus her efforts on the 1500m freestyle. It was a nail-biting race but all three girls pulled clear with 10m to go, giving the Pembrokeshire County Swimming team their second gold, silver and bronze medals of the season in Welsh national events.
Kelsey Williams’ swim in the heats (1:21.65) was enough to qualify her for the ASA Age Group Championships in July at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. She will join Carys Thomas who has already qualified, and Hollie Thomas who will swim in the following ASA Youth Championships.

PHOTO: Pictured is Ross Sutton, one of the swimmers who received bronze medals in both the 200 and 400m medley relays at the recent Dragon Swimming Meet at the Wales National Pool in Swansea.