Six PBs and two finals for Jacob at regional swimming champs
02 May 2023
Club captain Jacob Briers was Deepings Swimming Club’s sole qualifier for the East Midlands Long Course Youth Championships held over the May bank holiday weekend.
More than 700 swimmers aged 15 and over from 57 clubs competed at the Moorways Sports Village 50-metre pool in Derby to decide the best in the region.
Jacob qualified for eight events in the 15yrs age group and made finals in two, the 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly.
In the 200m breaststroke final, Jacob put in four solid lengths against tough competition to finish eighth, just outside his personal best.
He saved his best performance for his final race of the weekend. Having entered the 200m butterfly final seeded eighth after swimming a PB in the heats of 2:40.95, Jacob smashed that mark by more than seven seconds to come sixth place with a new best time of 2:33.35.
The 200m butterfly was one of six long course personal bests Jacob set at the championships. He sliced two seconds off his 50m breaststroke time, to finish 16th in 35.26, missing out on finals by just three-tenths of a second, while in the 100m butterfly, he dropped four seconds to touch home in 1:08.26 for 18th place.
In the 100m breaststroke, a strong first length helped to pull him to another personal best of 1:19.43 to finish 12th of 22 competitors.
The two freestyle events both resulted in new best times. Jacob shaved 1.5 seconds off his 200m freestyle time, but registered his lowest position of 25th; however, he enjoyed a stronger 400m freestyle to achieve a five-second PB of 4:46.72, giving him his second 12th place finish of the weekend.
In the 200 individual medley, Jacob came 17th, narrowly missing his PB.
Deepings Swimming Club head coach Sam Peeroo said: “Jacob had some excellent races and put in gutsy swims in his two finals. His 200m fly final was outstanding. He gave it everything he had, and I couldn’t ask for more. I'm very proud of Jacob and hope his performances inspire the juniors competing at Corby in a couple of weeks’ time.”
The concluding weekend of the East Midlands Long Course Championships returns to Corby on May 13-14 with the 14/under junior swimmers.