Olivia and Sadie reach four finals at British and English nationals
15 Aug 2022
Deepings Swimming Club sisters Olivia and Sadie Hunter reached finals in all four of their races at British and English summer nationals, the pinnacle of club competition, with a series of blistering career-best performances.
Olivia qualified for the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley at the British Summer Championships, which took place at Ponds Forge in Sheffield at the end of July.
Competing against the nation’s top club swimmers, she swam personal bests in the heats to make both finals in the 18yrs age group, qualifying eighth fastest in the 400IM in a time of 5:11.04 and fourth quickest in the butterfly in 2:20.87.
Strong performance in both finals saw Olivia finish seventh in the butterfly and 10th in the 400IM.
Olivia then joined her sister Sadie at English nationals two weeks later to compete in the 100m butterfly, with Sadie racing the 200m butterfly.
Olivia made it three out of three for finals and personal bests, knocking half a second of her 100m butterfly PB in the heats and shaving another couple of hundredths off in the final to finish eighth in a time of 1:05.13.
Three months after taking bronze in the 200m butterfly at the East Midlands regionals, Sadie ended her season on another high with her first appearance at English nationals.
In the heats, Sadie took two seconds off her personal best to qualify for the 14yrs final as the fifth fastest seed. A brilliant swim in the final saw her smash her PB once again, this time by three seconds to finish fifth in a time of 2:31.57.
Lynn Chapman, Deepings Swimming Club’s outgoing head coach, returned to the pool deck for the final time for nationals and was delighted with both girls’ performances.
“Olivia and Sadie both had outstanding swims at nationals, and I look forward to watching their continued progress in the coming years,” she said. “After coaching so many children to national and international level, it was wonderful to finish my time at Deepings Swimming Club with another trip to nationals. I wish the club all the best for the future.”
Any prospective swimmers looking to follow in the footsteps of Olivia and Sadie, or simply wanting to improve their skills and stamina, can come for a free trial at Deepings Swimming Club by emailing [email protected]