21 Jun 2019

Bethany Eagle-Brown swam her way to a brace of butterfly medals as four Deepings Swimming Club swimmers reached finals over the last weekend of East Midlands Youth Championships in Sheffield.

The team of eight achieved nine personal bests and made six finals with a series of outstanding races against the region’s best swimmers.

Sixteen-year-old Bethany started the weekend with a PB in the 400m freestyle, finishing 21st overall. In the afternoon, she swam another PB in the 200m butterfly heats to qualify third fastest for the final and then reached the 100m freestyle final after finishing seventh in the heat.

Bethany also came seventh in the 100m freestyle finals but saved her best for the 200m butterfly, powering home to win bronze.

With just the 100m butterfly on the Sunday, Bethany comfortably made it through the heats to qualify second fastest. She then put in a terrific performance in the final, knocking two seconds off her personal best to claim silver.

More finals were to follow, with Lorna McGill and Emma Wilde making it through the heats in the 16yrs 200m breaststroke. Both were looking well placed to compete for medals.

In the final, Emma was a little off her best but did well to finish sixth. Lorna was slightly off the pace at the 100m mark but a powerful second 100m brought her right back into contention. In a blanket finish, she missed bronze by less than half a second to come fifth.

Completing the girls’ events was club captain Holly Leggott. Although still 16, Holly was competing in the 17/over age group against rivals several years older. In the 100m backstroke, she finished 15th, in the 200IM she was 19th and in the 100m freestyle she came 21st.

Holly’s best performance came in the 200m backstroke, where she finished 13th, narrowly missing out on the final.

Four boys also qualified for the championships. Tom Neal was the solitary finalist of the weekend, finishing seventh in the 17/over 100m backstroke, despite only recently returning from injury. He also competed in the 100m butterfly, coming 14th in a new personal best.

Deepings boys’ captain Louis Metselaar competed in three events. His highest position came in the 100m breaststroke where he was 20th. Louis swam a new personal best to finish 25th in the 200m IM and ended the weekend with 29th in the 100m butterfly.

Competing against Louis in the same three age group events was Tom Adams. He also PB’ed in the 200IM, finishing in 21st place, set another new mark in the 100m breaststroke, finishing 32nd, and came 20th in the 100m butterfly. Tom also raced in the 100m freestyle, coming 39th.

Harry Cardell travelled to the Ponds Forge pool to compete in the 200m butterfly. Although he just missed out on the final, finishing 13th, Harry continued his excellent form with another personal best.

Lynn Chapman, Deepings head coach, was pleased with the performances from her team. “The championships were tough this year with several swimmers now competing in the top age group, but they all swam strong. Bethany, in particular, had an outstanding swim in the 100m butterfly and I was delighted that her hard work in training has really paid off.”

Ove the same weekend, two members of Deepings Masters squad were also in action at the Midlands Masters in Rugby.

Rodney Marks competed in seven events, winning a hat-trick of medals in the breaststroke. In the 100m, he took gold, added silver in the 200m and completed the set with bronze in the 50m breaststroke. He just missed out on two more medals with a pair of fourth-placed finished in the 10m and 200m freestyle.

Chris Orchard capped a fine weekend for Deepings with gold in the 200IM and silver in the 200m freestyle.


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