The late May bank holiday weekend saw the final stint of the Swim England South East Regional competitions, with those aged 15 and above taking part at Wycombe Leisure Centre.
Fourteen Woking Swimming Club swimmers competed over the weekend, reaching an outstanding 16 finals between them.
Galahad Reeve, 15, achieved a PB in the men’s 50m breaststroke of 35.77. Masters swimmers Ben Smith (33.54) and Max Freedman (30.99) competed in the same event, with Max reaching the final of the 18 and above category, ranked seventh.
In the 50m butterfly Sophie King, 18, and Tegan Gale, 16, made the final with 28.97 and 29.75 respectively. Isabelle Townsend, 17, beat her PB by more than half a second to finish ninth.
Daniel Turner came 11th in the 100m backstroke with 1.04.59. Isabelle and Tegan were back in the water for the 100m freestyle, Isabelle managing another PB to finish 11th in 1.02.58 while Tegan swam 59.33 to head into the final ranked second. Rita also swam the 100m freestyle in 1.02.97.
In their finals, Tegan finished eighth in the 50m butterfly and fourth in the 100m freestyle, Max swam 30.90 to come seventh in the 18 and above, while Sophie swam 28.81 to take silver in the 50m butterfly.
Annie Bailey, 17, beat her PB by three seconds with a time of 2.35.91, putting her in the 17-year-old age group final ranked seventh.
In the men's 50m freestyle Ben Platt, 16, made the final, finishing eighth in 25.80. Alongside Ben were masters swimmers Connor Brunt (24.89), Max Freedman (25.03) and James Norman (25.08).
Tegan reached the 50m backstroke final ranked fourth in 31.71. In the women’s 100m breaststroke Sophie swam 1.12.29 to rank first.
In her first regional final Annie swam even faster and finished sixth in 2.35.61 having recovered from a broken ankle barely weeks before. Ben swam faster with 25.62 to finish seventh. Tegan swam 31.77 in the backstroke final while Sophie won gold in 1.12.69.
Sophie qualified for the 200m individual medley final in second place. In the final she improved her time with 2.24.29 but others swam even faster and Sophie came fourth.
In the 50m butterfly Daniel Turner finished 14th in 28.52. Tegan reached the 50m freestyle final in 27.03. In the 200m backstroke Daniel swam a long course PB of 2.21.80 to reach his first regional final.
In the women’s 100m backstroke Tegan was joined by Sadie Warmington, 17, who swam 1.08.79 to finish sixth and reach the final. Ben swam the 100m freestyle in a PB of 56.06.
Tegan took silver in the 50m freestyle in 27.23. Daniel and Sadie had tough finals, with Daniel finishing eighth and Sadie seventh.
In the women’s 50m breaststroke Tilly Lockyer, 16, swam 40.44. Sophie made the final in 33.52. Daniel was tenth in the 50m backstroke in 29.90. In the 100m butterfly he swam 1.03.77.
The girls’ 100m butterfly included four Woking swimmers. Every one of them did enough to qualify for the final. It was certainly a highlight of the weekend, with Sadie finishing sixth, Tegan fourth, Sophie third and Isabelle sixth, qualifying for her first regional final.
In the final Sophie improved her time to 33.15 to finish fifth. Tegan swam 1.06.49 to end up fifth in the 16-year-old age group. Sadie swam faster in the final, finishing fifth in 1.08.13. Isabelle slipped on her starting block and played catch-up, finishing just outside her qualifying time in 1.08.71.
A Woking Swimming Club spokesperson said: “Overall it was a quality weekend with some outstanding swims. It was great to see a number of new finalists for Woking, and many gaining huge experience at such a high level against such tough competition.
“We are immensely proud of finishing 11th in the medals table and seventh in the points table, especially against such big clubs. Again Woking Swimming Club do an outstanding job of competing against our bigger rivals.
“Next up is the wait for the national window to close to see who has earnt the right to compete at the biggest competition of the season.”
The club wishes to say a huge thank you to everyone who gave up their time to support the Woking swimmers.
