THE first round of the Jordan s sponsored Biggleswade Swimming Club 2006 Championships was held last weekend and saw some superb swims. The first event was the challenging 400m individual medley. Eleanor Mason knocked nearly two minutes off her personal b

THE first round of the Jordan's sponsored Biggleswade Swimming Club 2006 Championships was held last weekend and saw some superb swims.

The first event was the challenging 400m individual medley. Eleanor Mason knocked nearly two minutes off her personal best, swimming in a time of 6:34.69 and Hannah Raine swam a stunning 5:09.37 to take the junior club record.

The 200m freestyle was packed with young swimmers swimming in their very first club championships, and for some, their first ever competitive race. Jessica Caughtry and Emily Bradbury knocked over half a minute off their personal bests (PBs), swimming times of 3:26.61 and 3:12.10 respectively. Charlotte Jarvis pulled out a time of 3:26.36, a 16 second improvement in her PB, and Emily McConnell took the nine year club record in a time of 2:59.09 and managed to take the record for the 100 freestyle in the process.

Ethan Farrell kept the pace going for the boys and hit a 20 second PB in a time of 3:05.20. Older brother Kane Farrell fought it out with George Lavallin swimming in a time of 2:33.93 to George's 2:34.45 and claiming the 11 year record.

The 800m freestyle saw many swimmers tackling the event for the first time. Everyone dug in hard and produced some outstanding results. Elizabeth Dowsett pulled out all the stops and swam a great race in her first ever 800m event, in a time of 12:10.95, collecting PBs for 50m, 200m and 400m as she went. Brother David Dowsett matched her efforts, swimming in a time of 9:08.99, and taking the 19 year old club record. Robert Baldrance took the 14 year club record in an impressive time of 9:58.86. Also worth a mention was reluctant entrant Doug Kerr who decided not to risk front crawl in this much longer event which he usually swims, so did the whole race in backstroke and recorded 10 mins 30 secs.

The last event of the evening was the gruelling 1,500m freestyle. This was also packed full of personal bests, starting with Shauna Lee in the first heat swimming in a time of 23:16.60 and taking the 11 year record for both the 1,500m and the 400m, an amazing achievement for her first ever 1,500m. The last heat had everyone on the edge of their seats with Christian Stokes and Louise King fighting it out over the whole 60 lengths. The lead changed several times but they fought to the bitter end with Louise touching just ahead of Christian, swimming times of 18:33.03 for Louise and 18:33.28 for Christian.

Overall the club's swimmers achieved an impressive personal best rate of 74 per cent with nine club records falling. Congratulations to all the swimmers, the coaches, the officials and technical team for a great start to the championships. The second round will be in September and the final round in October.

All the swimmers wish good luck to club mates Harriet Brettle, Alex Raine, Paul Titley and Adam Ingledew who are off to compete in the National Youth and Age Groups Championships next week. This group were not competing in this round of the club championships as they are in training for their national events

The last of this season's training sessions will be on Monday, July 31, and is an opportunity for all club members to say farewell to Wendy Million, who joined the club from Canada and has been a regular member of the coaching team for three years. She has been well liked by the swimmers and has been game enough to enter the occasional gala for the club. Indeed Wendy swam the demanding 400m in the championships. Wendy is returning to Canada soon.