 |
20 1st places and 14 2nd places from just 49 events
The second round of the Barnsley Minors League 2006 proved an exciting and rewarding meet for Sharks. Several memorable swims helped the club to beat off determined competition from Sheffield City, Chapletown and Borough of Barnsley. From quite early on Sharks showed their mettle establishing a lead of 17 points after only 15 events. Sheffield City and Chapletown settled down into a fight for second place with Borough of Barnsley keeping in touch but never threatening to rise above last place.
Although several first choice swimmers were not available on Saturday, the strength of our overall squad meant that even our substitutes were well capable of hitting personal bests to give Sharks a huge 151 points total. City of Sheffield finally ended up with 120, beating Chapletown, with 116, into second place. Borough of Barnsley finished the gala with 106 points.
As usual it was a noisy gala, not least due to the frequent and exciting close finishes. In the last race, the Cannon, it's always a battle of pride - even if the result makes little difference to the overall gala positions. Sharks established a strong lead early on but by the last leg Borough of Barnsley were within striking distance. In a very exciting finish Sharks were just piped by a touch but were then awarded the race through a disqualification for an early takeover. It was a fitting end to an excellent gala for Sharks.
There were a few memorable swims from Sharks Swimmers. Jonathan Latham knocked a whopping 1,86 seconds off his PB for 25 free in the last leg of the 14 years Medley to recover nearly three metres deficit to win. Hannah Blackham had a similar distance to make up in the last leg of the 16-21 years Freestyle relay. Still trailing at the turn Hannah upped the ante to win convincingly.
In the final event, the popular cannon, Keith Squires thundered up the last leg against someone twice his size to lose bravely at the touch.
57 personal bests were recorded and three club records were broken at this gala. The records broken were:
Mathew Hirst - Boys 10yrs 25m Backstroke 20.64 (-0.43)
Keith Squires - Boys 14yrs 25m Breaststroke 17.03 (-0.12)
Simon Latham - Male 21&Over 50m Butterfly 30.43 (-0.54)