Five of our swimmers recorded personal best times in the first weekend of the 2024 East Region Long Course Championships, with Matt Wright and Alice Buckingham also lowering their own age group Club records.

Breaking the 52 second barrier for the third time this year, Matt Wright won the Men’s 17years & over 100m Freestyle title. He touched the wall in a time of 51.38, a winning margin of 0.36 seconds, beating his own Club record by 0.06 seconds. Matt was just beaten in the 50m event, finishing second but only 0.11 seconds behind the winner. His time of 23.78 was nevertheless the fourth time that Matt had swum the long course event under 24 seconds.

A second Club Age Group record fell to Alice Buckingham with her 10:47.00 in the Girls’ 11/12 Years 800m Freestyle. With a six second improvement on her previous best, Alice came 5th in a field where she was the only one of the 12 competitors not born in 2012.

Over the same distance, George Saunders came 6th in the Boys 14 years age group. His time of 9:44.31 was over 4.5 seconds faster than he had swum back in January at the Beds County championships

Fifteen year old Ollie Fenwick registered three personal best long course times in his 800m Freestyle (7th), 100m Breaststroke (17th) and 400m IM (11th). He was also placed 8th in his 400m Freestyle and 22nd over 200m Backstroke. Ollie’s Breaststroke time was also a 4.5 second improvement since March 2024.

In the same age group Emmanuel Kolobius swam PBs in his 100m Butterfly (25th) and 100m Freestyle (13th) with an 11th placing for his 50m Freestyle. Emmanuel’s 100m Freestyle time of 58.43 was 1.3 seconds faster than his previous best from 2023.

Talia Staines was outside of her personal best times but nevertheless  came 4th in the Ladies 17 years & over 800m Freestyle and 8th in the 400m Freestyle.