Swimmers contest 2023 Swim England East Region Short Course Championships

West Norfolk swimmers were out in force at the 2023 Swim England East Region Short Course Championships at Luton.

On Friday, Esmie Kidman swam a season’s best time in the women’s 800-metre freestyle.

Freddie Laws and Nathan and Joseph Wells competed in the men’s 200m individual medley.

Laws and Joseph Wells both put in season’s best performances whilst Nathan Wells progressed through to the final where he edged out the City of Norwich’s Olivier Vedrenne for gold.

The men’s 50m freestyle saw a PB from Rhys Burrell as well as season’s best times for Tom Garnett; Nedas Tkacenko; Robert Addis; Joseph Wells; Finlay Ryan and Tobias Oglesby.

Club captain Harvey Isle and vice-captain Daniel Grimmer were in 200m butterfly before the men’s and women’s 100m breaststroke events.

Molly Lee and Sarah O’Brien registered season’s best times in the women’s event, with O’Brien sixth in the final.

Burrell and Laws also both swam season’s best times in the men’s heats, with Laws making the final with Finlay Ryan.

They finished third and fourth – with Laws picking up West Norfolk’s second medal of the day.

In the women’s 100m IM, O’Brien and Lee swam season’s bests with the later making the final.

Oglesby swam a PB in the men’s 100m backstroke, while Nathan Wells won silver in the final.

Millie Harris set a PB in the women’s 100m freestyle before Grimmer participated in the men’s 200m freestyle.

In the 50m butterfly, O’Brien set a season’s best in the women’s heats, whilst Harris swam a PB.

The men’s event was contested by Grimmer; Burrell; Addis; Joseph Wells and Oglesby – with Addis and Wells setting season’s best times and Oglesby a PB.

Erin Woodrow and Chloe Bellamy rounded out Saturday in the women’s 200m backstroke.

Sunday’s opening event, the men’s 50m backstroke, saw Oglesby set a PB whilst Addis and Nathan Wells set season’s best times – with the later joining Oglesby in the final.

Come the final, Oglesby set another PB, missing a medal by twelve-hundredths of a second whilst Wells bagged silver – just one-tenth of a second from victory.

The women’s 50m freestyle saw a season’s best time from O’Brien and PBs from Harris and Woodrow.

The men’s 200m breaststroke saw another PB for Rhys Burrell whilst Freddie Laws sent himself into the final with a season’s best swim – which he obliterated by four seconds in the final for bronze.

In the women’s event, O’Brien set a season’s best swim for eighth in the final.

The men’s 100m individual medley saw a flurry of season’s bests for West Norfolk from Grimmer; Addis and both Wells Brothers, whilst Freddie Laws set a PB.

The final saw Laws set a PB for fourth, whilst Nathan Wells took the regional title in a time of 56.86 seconds – a presumed Norfolk record.

Wells also took victory in the men’s 400 IM to complete a clean sweep of short course regional medley titles for the second successive year.

The same event also saw Harvey Isle set a season’s best time of 5 minutes 10.57 seconds.

There were further season’s bests in the 100M freestyle courtesy of Addis and Joseph Wells – whilst Oglesby set a PB on his way to a fifth-place finish in the final.

The men’s 50m breaststroke saw Freddie Laws and Finlay Ryan make the final – where a close race Ryan edge out his counterpart to win bronze.

Olivia Skittrell and Pemberley Hornigold had their first swims of the weekend in the women’s 5om breaststroke with the former setting a season’s best and the latter a personal best.

O’Brien and Lee were also in action in the event, with Lee replicating Skittrell’s achievement.

Finally, the 200m backstroke saw season’s bests from Isle, Grimmer and Nathan Yeaman – whilst Nathan Wells secured one last finals spot ahead of a seventh-place finish overall.

Head coach Sarah Vanderloo was thrilled with her team’s performance across the weekend – highlighting a seventh-place finish out of 35 in the standings for “Top Club” despite not contesting the relay events.

Vanderloo took centre stage herself as the weekend drew to a close, being presented with the Swim England East Region Swimming Coach of the Year Award for 2023.

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