Bishop's Stortford Swimming Club members Niamh James and Ella Greatbatch make waves at Swim England East Region Short Course Championships
Niamh James defended her 200m backstroke title and Ella Greatbatch smashed a club record when Bishop's Stortford Swimming Club members took part in the Swim England East Region Short Course Championships.
The meet in Luton was made up of open races, so young qualifiers had to battle against seasoned competitors in their 20s and reaching a final meant you were in the top eight swimmers in the region for that event, irrespective of age.
James began by reaching the 50m backstroke final with a personal best of 29.76sec before coming sixth in the final (30.05).
Later that day she fought off a strong challenge from a Team Ipswich 16-year-old to take gold by 0.23sec in the 200m backstroke final with a time of 2min 14.75sec.
In the 50m freestyle, Callum Cox, Callum Davis and Jake Lloyd all swam PBs (23.57, 24.45, 25.96 respectively) while 16-year-old Cox's time secured him a place in the final where he came fourth (23.82) in an event won by an 18-year-old.
Emma Fields was on form in the 100m freestyle with a PB in the heats of 59.17 and she knocked 0.01sec off that to come seventh in the final.
Cox swam a great heat in 50m butterfly with a PB of 25.40 and was straight into the final, whilst Davis was joint eighth (25.77) and had to swim off for a final place.
Incredibly, both swimmers achieved identical results for the second time in the swim off, but the officials deemed the other swimmer had broken a technical rule and should be disqualified, moving Davis into the final.
Both performed well in the final, with Davis coming fifth (25.63) and Cox seventh (25.99, first under-18).
James then came fourth in the 200m individual medley final (2.22.21) and fifth in the 100m backstroke (1.04.17).
Kirsty Neill and Greatbatch swam strong times to secure places in the 200m breaststroke final (2.37.08 & 2.39.54 PB) where they came sixth and seventh (2.39.71 & 2.40.29) and were the first and second under-16s.
Davis and Cox both qualified for the 100m butterfly final (57.44 & 57.71 PB) where the former came sixth (57.86) and the latter was eighth (1.01.21).
Lauren Gore secured her place in the 50m breaststroke final with a PB of 33.43 and came sixth in the final (33.53) as the second under-18.
Fourteen-year-old Greatbatch was 12th in the event with a PB (33.85) and a 14/15 year BSSC short course club record.
Neill broke the 14/15 year club record of 35.10, that had been held since 2007 by Bernice Edgeworth, with a time of 34.85. She went on to drop it multiple times down to 34.37, but in-form Greatbatch smashed that with her 33.85.