Summer National Success for Salisbury Swimmers with a TRIPLE National Champion!
11 Aug 2022
Summer National Success for Salisbury Swimmers with a TRIPLE National Champion!
Salisbury Stingrays Swimming Club had four swimmers qualify for the Swim England Summer Nationals held at Ponds Forge National Centre in Sheffield. Stingrays swimmers posted times during the National qualifying window to be selected to compete amongst the best swimmers in the country in the Olympic sized pool.
The team performed amazingly, securing personal bests in all events; including five final appearances, seven top ten finishes as well as coming home with three gold medals and three national titles!
Oscar Bellinger (14) qualified for five events and posted dramatic personal bests in all, securing gold medals in the 400m, 800m and 1500m Freestyle, coming home a triple national Champion! Bellinger posted a phenomenal 42 second personal best in the 1500m (17.20.77), a 26 second personal best in the 800m (9.02.93) and a 27 second personal best in the 400m (4.19.91), all outstanding swims against a high-quality field. Bellinger showed great tactical awareness and pacing, pulling away from the leading swimmer to take victory in each race. His times ranked him in the top 10 in Great Britain in each event! A truly great feat to take all three titles in distance events on back to back days of racing!
Bellinger also swam in the 400m Individual Medley and 100m Butterfly, securing final places in both events. Bellinger finished in 8th in the 400m IM in 5.04.00 and 7th in the 100m BF in 1.02.40.
Teammate and fellow 14-year-old Theo Parker-Minty also swam in the 400m Individual Medley securing a fantastic 10 second personal best to make the final in 5.02.32. Theo swam a great race in the final and finished a fantastic 6th place. In addition, Theo swam in the 1500m Freestyle alongside Bellinger and swam an unbelievable race swimming faster at the 400m mark than his personal best by 8 seconds and at the 800m mark by a whopping 20 seconds to finish with a massive personal best of 17.40.43 (some 30 seconds quicker than his previous time secured in May) to finish just outside the medals in 4th place.
Butterfly specialist Ethan Cleary (14) competed in the 200m Butterfly in another tough event. Ethan posted a 4 second personal best in the heats to qualify for the final in 2.24.26. In the final, Ethan swam even better, showing great race awareness and pacing to finish even quicker at 2.23.26 and 6th place.
Georgie Byam, the youngest swimmer from the club at just 13 years of age, qualified in the 1500m Freestyle. Georgie swam a gusty race, swimming quicker at the 400m mark than her 400m personal best by 2 seconds and at the 800m mark by 7 seconds to finish with a fantastic 13 second personal best and in 11th place.
Head Coach Chris White was incredibly proud of his young swimmers, ‘It shows amazing progression for the swimmers who have only competed at County level before this season. They all showed great maturity in their swims and great confidence, to secure their amazing results which are a great platform for the future”. All swimmers have finished the season with top 23 British Rankings and give great inspiration to the swimmers of Salisbury!
In yet another success for Salisbury Stingrays, Byron Robson competed in the British Nationals at the end of July in the Men’s 50m and 100m Butterfly in the 16-year age group. Qualifying for the British Summer Nationals means Byron is one of the top 24 swimmers in the country for these events in his age group. Byron narrowly missed out reaching the final in the 50m Butterfly by 0.06 seconds and finishes the season ranked 23rd in the 50m event and 31st in the 100m event in Great Britain!
This has been great summer for Salisbury swimmers with record-breaking results after just one full season under the guidance of White and his coaching team. The future is looking very bright for Salisbury Stingrays!
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