Deepings’ butterfly success at East Midlands regional festival
02 Aug 2021
Deepings Swimming Club enjoyed a weekend of success in the butterfly at the Swim England East Midlands Summer Festival, with eight top three finishes across three age groups.
The Festival, which replaced the East Midlands Regional Championships, cancelled due to Covid restrictions, took place at the long course 50 metre Harvey Hadden pool in Nottingham. It was the final meet of the highly disrupted 2020/21 season.
Six Deepings swimmers took their place on the starting blocks after meeting the qualifying times.
Sadie Hunter and Holly Roffe renewed their friendly rivalry in the 13yrs age group a week after they both set new Deepings club records in the 200m butterfly – Sadie as a 12-year-old, Holly as a 13-year-old.
The two girls set the pool ablaze for the second consecutive weekend in both the 100m and 200m butterfly.
In the longer event, Sadie pulled clear of the field in the early stages to take a convincing lead but had to dig deep to hold off a fast-finishing Holly over the final 50 metres. In a finger-tip finish, Sadie claimed first place in 2:47.04, just fifteen-hundredths of a second ahead of Holly, who took second.
It was an even closer finish in the 100m butterfly as Holly jumped out to an early lead in the first 50 metres. This time it was Sadie’s turn to do the chasing and a perfectly timed finish saw her take second place in a time of 1:17.15, eight-hundreds of a second quicker than Holly, who finished third.
With Sadie’s day concluded, Holly continued her strong performances with fifth place in the 100m freestyle and 17th in the 100m breaststroke.
Olivia Hunter, Sadie’s older sister, continued Deepings’ fine run of form in the butterfly by coming first in the both the 17yrs 100m and 200m events, while Sophie Baskeyfield took second place in the 18/over 200m butterfly. Olivia also impressed with an excellent fourth in the 100m breaststroke.
Completing the girl’s team was former club captain Holly Leggott, competing in her final season for the club before leaving for university.
In the 18/over age group, Holly doubled up in the 100m and 200m backstroke, coming ninth and fifth respectively. After the 200m event, she returned immediately to the action in the 100m freestyle where she came a creditable ninth, despite minimal recovery time.
Jacob Briers, Deepings’ only boys representative, also excelled in the 200m butterfly, holding off strong competition to finish second in the 13yrs age group.
With a heavy race schedule, featuring six events in less than three hours, Jacob finished inside the top 10 in five of them.
In arguably swimming’s toughest race, the 400m individual medley, Jacob just missed a podium spot, coming fourth – the first time he had swum this demanding event in a long course pool. He came seventh in the 200m breaststroke, eighth in the 200m individual medley, ninth in the 100m butterfly and 13th in the 100m breaststroke.
In addition to the squad of six, Molly Briers and Bethany Eagle-Brown also qualified for the swimming festival but were forced to withdrawal through injury and illness.
Lynn Chapman, Deepings Swimming Club head coach, was delighted with the performances following a difficult season interrupted by three Covid lockdowns.
“The standard of competition was very high at this regional meet, but my swimmers did themselves and the club proud with some exceptional racing over the two days,” she said. “We now have two weeks off for summer and then return for the 2021/22 season eager for more improvements and more success in the pool.”