NORTH EAST REGION SHORT COURSE CHAMPS

Seven Cleethorpes & Scunthorpe Aquatics Swimmers (Zach Amin, Charlotte Steels, Steph Gladding, Leah Altoft, Jazmin Kirk, Becky Moore & Sophie Long) took to the water at the Neptune swimming centre in Middlesbrough for the North East Region Short Course District Championships on Saturday 3^rd & Sunday 4^th November.

Led by Zach Amin who won the Junior (15 & U) 100 & 200 metre breaststroke titles the swimmers produced some excellent swims.

After a slow start on the first couple of events on the Saturday morning the CASA swimmers sprung into life when Zach Amin produced an 8 second personal best time of 4 minutes 51 seconds for the 400 IM making the senior final for the event along the way. He followed this with his 200 breaststroke in which he qualified for the senior final in 5^th position with a time just outside his personal best.

This was then followed by an excellent personal best for Sophie Long in the 800 freestyle of 10 minutes & nine seconds which was an excellent effort considering that she is only 12 years old and was the youngest swimmer at the event.

Into the afternoon finals and with Zach Amin qualified for the 400 IM & 200 Breaststroke finals he decided to withdraw from the 400 IM final to concentrate on his 200 Breaststroke in which he was gunning for his National time, this was to pay dividends having qualified 5^th for the Senior final he managed to move his ranking upto 4^th and win the Junior Title (15&U) also producing a 2 second personal best of 2 minutes 30 seconds just missing out on his National time for the event by a mere 1 second.

Onto to the Sunday morning and after a reasonable first day the CASA swimmers seemed up for the fight from the off.

The first event of the morning was the women’s 100 freestyle in which Sophie Long and Jazmin Kirk were in the first heat but both producing excellent swims Jazmin lowering her personal best time by 2 seconds to 1 minute & five seconds and Sophie just swimming outside her personal best time.

Next up to smash their personal best times was Leah Altoft in the 50 Brst swimming and excellent time of 37.54 seconds then following this up with an unbelievable 9 second personal best time on the 200 Brst of 2 minutes 51 seconds.

This was closely followed by Zach Amin winning the Junior (15&U) 100 Breaststroke but just missing out on the Senior final coming in at 9^th position just outside his personal best time and 1 place outside the Senior final.

From there Becky Moore took up the batten and went onto to smash 20 seconds off her 400 IM personal best setting a new tome of 5 minutes 34 seconds and then following this up with a 10 second personal best time on the 200 Butterfly coming in at 2 minutes 36 seconds.

Sophie Long then concluded her weekend with a good personal best time of 19 minutes 15 seconds for the 1500 freestyle followed by Zach Amin on the 200 Backstroke in a personal best time of 2 minutes 21 seconds.

Coach Nathan Hilton was overjoyed with the weekends results and said; “What a great weekend. This was the first time Sophie, Leah, Jazmin & Becky had swum at this event and with them all still being under 14 years old and Sophie & Leah only being 12 years old they acquitted themselves very well producing some excellent times which bodes well for the of the season.

Zach has proved once again what a great competitor he is coming up with the goods when it really matters and only just missing out on his national time which is an excellent base to work off for the rest of the season. Charlotte had to pull out through injury at the last minute which was disappointing as she had been training well with Steph just coming back from a 2 week holiday she was a little under par but raced hard all weekend and can be proud of herself.

These results are an excellent platform for us to move on for the rest of the season and once again proves that we are offering the best opportunities for Performance swimming in the area.”