The young swimmers from Shirley Pool continued to dominate in the second weekend of the Hampshire County Swimming Championships in Waterlooville.
Emily Lowther (12) finished the session as it had started, with gold, included a record breaking 36.58 seconds in the 50m breaststroke. The Hampshire record had stood unscathed for ten years until the weekend. Another podium first followed in the 100m breaststroke (1.21.34) and the Hythe schoolgirl was nearly half a length ahead of the field in the 200m breaststroke (2.51.15) and six seconds clear of her nearest rival in the 200m butterfly (2.44.27). An impressive haul of 7 gold, silver and one bronze for the championships.
Record breaker Emily
More medals followed with the 100m butterfly, where the Southampton Dolphins had 4 swimmers in the final, including twins Evie and Issy Turner.
Shirley’s Issy Turner (11) struck triple gold in the 50m, (33.78) 100m (1.09.65) and 200m backstroke (2.30.24) with an impressive display, making her number one ranked backstroker for her age in the UK. Second in the 100m free (1.05.99) and third in four other events, Issy secured another ten personal best times across the strokes showing her range of ability and potential as well as a hatful of medals.
There were further rewards for the hard working Dolphins, Sophie Hawkes (14) securing silver in the 100m butterfly and bronze in the 50m (31.25); Freya Manning silver in the 100m free (1.05.99 ) and Ellena Lewis was second in 33.36 50m back .Ellena also grabbed bronze in the 13 years 100m backstroke (1.12.19) and the 50m freestyle final (30.23). Brother Nathan was unluckly not to come away with more from his six finals while Freya Latimore, Verity Telford, Victoria Butler, James Cummings-Candal, Sadie Pratt Filker, Phoebe Field, Ethan Grundy, Freddie Sadler all had personal best performances that contributed to the overall success as a club for Southampton Dolphins.
In his final Counties tournament before a move to a major London club, Dolphins head Coach Chris White was over the moon with his protégés,
“I am just so impressed with the kids, they really did swim out of their skins. It is sad to leave but sometimes I guess you just have to move on and see where it can take you”
The new Dolphins coach is expected to be announced over the coming weekend.
With one weekend to go the top ten Hampshire Club rankings are as follows:
Rushmoor Royals 923
Tigers (Jersey) 735
Winchester City Penguins 726
Portsmouth Northsea 499
Southampton Dolphins 422
Basingstoke Bluefins 261
Fareham Nomads 230
City of Southampton 185
Hart 153
Alton and District 127