Jacob leads from the front as Deepings claims 18 medals at Rugby swim meet
03 Apr 2023
Boys club captain Jacob Briers led by example at last weekend’s swimming meet in Rugby by placing top three in all seven of his events as Deepings Swimming Club brought home 18 medals.
The squad of 10 came off the back of an intense training block to enjoy success at the highly competitive Rugby Swimming Club open meet, racing against swimmers from 25 other clubs. In total, they shared six gold, six silver and six bronze medals.
The wins started flowing from the very first event, the 400m freestyle, with gold for Jacob in the 14yrs age group and James Cash in the 12yrs, while Oliver Shepherd won bronze in the 13yrs category.
Jacob repeated his golden performance in the 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly before adding silver in the 200IM and 200m freestyle plus a pair of bronzes in the 50m breaststroke and 100m butterfly, the latter with a two-second PB.
James continued his excellent run of form with his second gold medal of the weekend in the 50m backstroke. He ended the meet with a two-second PB and silver in the 100m butterfly to go three-for-three in his events.
After tasting success in the 400m freestyle, Oliver stepped up a gear to claim two silvers with a two-second PB in the 100m butterfly and a 1.5-second best time in the 50m freestyle, where he dipped under 30 seconds for the first time.
Completing the boys’ medals - and ensuring they all came away from the meet with honours - were vice-captain Lewis Tarver (bronze in the 14yrs 200m backstroke), Jack Bell (bronze in the 13yrs 200m backstroke) and William Burdock (bronze in the 13yrs 200m breaststroke).
While medals were less abundant for the girls, there were nevertheless some outstanding performance and huge personal bests.
Lottie Jenkinson won the 200m butterfly with a massive 16-second personal best to touch home in 3:12.97. She also swam a seven-second PB in the 200IM to go 3:03.66.
Sister Lucy was also enjoying an excellent weekend, knocking eight seconds off her 50m breaststroke time, five seconds off her 100m freestyle and a second off both her 50m backstroke and her 50m butterfly in the 11yrs age group.
Girls vice-captain Eloise Walker added the final medal of the weekend. The 15-year-old was racing against older girls in the 15/O age group but put in a sterling performance in the 200m butterfly to claim silver with a one-second PB, and had strong races in the 100m freestyle and 200IM to finish just outside the medals.
Completing the team was Isabella Reynolds. A heavy schedule of nine races, the most of any Deepings swimmer, yielded several standout performances, including a seven-second PB in the 100m freestyle, 14 seconds in the 400m freestyle, two seconds in the 50m backstroke, and four seconds in both the 200m breaststroke and 200m backstroke.
Deepings Swimming Club head coach Sam Peeroo said: “All 10 swimmers should be very proud of their efforts over the weekend. Everyone achieved personal bests and showed real improvement in their skills across a range of strokes and distances. I’m delighted by their performances.”