Tring swimmers earn clutch of PBs in Arena League

The Arena League and Herts Major League (following Tring’s promotion in April) will both be very tough this year, so it’s crucial every member of the team focuses on developing their skills and supporting each other strongly.

The team achieved 16 individual personal bests and 19 personal bests in relays, and the U16 Girls relay team (Brianna Mazey, Molly Bradley, Emma Killin, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Marcia Billingham, Chloe Woodruff) broke both medley and freestyle club records, the latter breaking two minutes for the first time in the club’s history.

There were some really outstanding swims; Thomas Monks took four seconds of his 100m butterfly PB in 1.13.91, then swam a 100m freestyle PB shortly afterwards, and broke 30 seconds for the first time in the freestyle relay.

Sam Pyefinch narrowly missed a regional qualifying time on his 100m backstroke in 1.18.97, then PB’d in 50m breaststroke and three times in relays; five PBs in six swims was an outstanding performance.

Several swimmers achieved major breakthroughs: Angus Miller has made huge strides during the autumn and knocked nine seconds off his 100m freestyle PB in 1.10.69; Georgia Wilkinson knocked seven seconds off in the same event swimming 1.15.06, and Brianna Mazey swam an excellent 100m butterfly in 1m20.24, an event in which she has lots of potential.

Emma Killin was on great form with a (25m pool) PB 1.21.02 in an exciting Open Girls 100m breaststroke race, and also PB’d in 50m freestyle.

It was fantastic to watch the girls U12 team make breakthroughs – both Amaya Stephenson and Amelia Owens (3 times) taking 2s off their 50 freestyle PBs, Chloe Sharp 1 second off hers, and Charlie Mailey PB’ing in all 3 of her races in 50m and 100m Breaststroke and 50m butterfly, while Isobel Geller showed great resilience in swimming up all evening and PB’ing in 100m butterfly with 2 strong relay swims also. Well done also to the U12 boys who in the short-term absence of Joe Judson are having to race in both the U12s and U14s at the moment – PBs for Alexander Stephenson, Oli Denton-Sparke, Jacob Geller and Edward Larner and good swims by Freddie Thon all suggest the boys have a great future once they start competing at their own age.

Swimmers of the Night: Boys – Sam Pyefinch, Girls – Charlie Mailey

Meanwhile, during the Aylesbury Long Distance open meet on November 13, the team had a great experience and there were some excellent performances. 800m and 1500m freestyle are both big tests of technique as well as endurance and are important events in the development of young swimmers.

The outstanding swim on the day was by Thomas Monks – the first Tring swimmer to break 20 minutes for 1500m since Tom Frewin in a time of 19m32.31. Thomas is now only 28seconds behind Tom’s PB and has huge potential in this event. Sam Pyefinch also shone with a time of 21m23.69 to gain a consideration time for Counties; as very few 11 year-olds do this event Sam has a​ good chance of getting a place. Both swimmers showed excellent pacing throughout; in their middle 1300m both Sam and Thomas paced every 100m within a 2second split.

The highlight of the day was Lili Doubler completing her first 800m – well done Lili! Lili almost PB’d in her first 100m in 1m40, and then held her technique together really well through the whole race to finish in 14m22.99.

Excellent swims from Brianna Mazey also (10m20.78), Molly Bradley (10m43.31) and Isobel Geller (11m49.75), all of whom swam beyond expectation and looked technically excellent through the whole 800m. And good swims from Clem Waterhouse, Chloe Woodruff and Marcia Billingham – great to see all of them taking on such a tough event!