Head Coaches Report

The swimmers of Exeter City continued to add to their medal tally at the third stage of the 2008 Devon Championships. Swimming against stiff competition from around the county 19 swimmers reached a total of 33 finals, with 11 swimmers combining to collect 18 medals of different varieties.
 
Leading the way for the city team in the prestigious championship events was Annie Tinsley, 15, who picked up only the second open event medal for Exeter this year with a bronze in the 800m freestyle in a time of 9:28.26 - a swim which was also good enough for the silver medal in her own age group. Maria Griss, 13, made it Exeter's most successful open event this year by also placing in 6th in a time of 9:35.78 - a pb. Maria's swim secured the gold in her own age group for the event, and she added to her tally with a bronze in the age 400m IM - also a pb.
 
Alex Wooldridge, 17, once again swam within a couple of tenths of a second of his national qualifying time in the heats of the 100m breaststroke, and although he missed the cut his swim was good enough to make the men's final where he placed 5th. Alex made it 3 pb's from 3 swims with silver medals in his age group in the 100m butterfly in a time of 1:00.33 and the 400m freestyle in a time of 4:18.36.
 
12yr-old Laura Shears produced a gold medal performance in the 100m freestyle to capture the title in a pb of 1:03.72, and followed that up with a silver in the 100m butterfly with another pb time of 1:12.91.
 
Sally Whybra, 14, won the most hardware over the weekend with three silver medals that came in the 800m freestyle with a pb time of 9:39.57, the 100m butterfly with a time of 1:08.66 and the 400m IM in another pb time of 5:13.64. She also finished 6th in the 100m freestyle.
 
Hannah Schulz in the 13yr age group was unfortunately disqualified in the 400m IM, which would've won her the gold, but despite her disappointment she stormed through on the last 25m of the 100m butterfly to capture the silver a mere 0.1sec behind the winner, and picked up another silver in the 100m freestyle.
 
10yr old Ed Jackson was involved in the closest finish of the weekend in the 400m freestyle where his race for the finish fell just 0.02 sec short, but still earned him the silver in a pb of 5:38.85.
 
Louise McGowan, 15, overcame injury & health problems from the last few months to swim to a 2nd place and silver medal in the 100m butterfly.
 
Meg Watkinson, 11, won her first Devon medal of the year with a 3rd placed finish in the 100m butterfly, and followed that with a 4th place finish in the 100m freestyle.
 
14yr old Liam Spruce is possibly in the toughest of all the male age groups, yet produced a bronze medal performance in the 100m breaststroke, and also finished 4th in the 100m butterfly.Tom Wadeley-Jones, 12, added to his collection of Devon medals with a bronze in the 200m backstroke.
 
Vickie Sincock, 16, swam an excelletn 1500m race to finish 2nd in a time of 18:39.91, and was also placed 4th in the 800m freestyle.
 
Other swimmers to make finals were Sammie Gray 4th in the 11yr 100m butterfly, Helen Smith 4th in the 13yr 400m IM, Joe Cotterill 4th in the 11yr 200m backstroke, Rebecca Hitt 6th in both the 14yr 400m IM & 800m freestyle, Sam Collett 6th in the 13yr 100m butterfly, Sam Jackson 6th in the 13yr 200m backstroke, and laura Sprague 6th in the 16/over 400m IM.
 

Links

Devon County ASA

ASA SouthWest

British Swimming