Blackpool Rocks Friday 1st, Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd May 2015 Review

12/5/2015

More Marvellous Marlins!

The weekend got off to a cracking start on Friday evening, as two courageous Marlins, Abbie Brennand (11) and Jordan O’Hara (13), took to the water of Blackpool’s Palentine Pool, to take on the 400m freestyle. Both swimmers did extremely well, both achieving personal best times. Jordan also secured a SILVER medal to add to his medal wins from Bolton, achieved the week before. A smashing evening’s work. Well done!

Great swims continued on Saturday morning, our 11 Marlins gaining some very good new personal best times, 44% rate, quite a tall order as some swimmers were trying to better times, which they’d only just achieved at the Bolton competition. A strong swim, definitely worth a mention, came from Keira Dunstan (12), who took the advice to, “Just go for it!” and she just did! Gaining herself a very nice pb in the 100m freestyle, good focus, Keira.

Unfortunately, we had some swimmers forced to withdraw from racing due to illness, poorly Amelia Arcangelo (13), due to race 11 times over the weekend, found herself feeling too unwell to continue, managing to bravely complete her 200IM before retiring. Georgia Ashton (11) also had to withdraw but not before achieving a pb in her 50m backstroke. Hard luck girls, hopefully you’ll be in tip top condition for the Marlins’ Sprint Meet 13th and 14th June!

Saturday afternoon produced 67% pbs from our 6 racing Marlins. First up, the boys 200m freestyle and all of our boys did themselves proud, all achieving good personal best times, very good ones from Nathan White (14) and Callan Sharples (13). Liam Hardman (12) found himself in 4th position, agonizingly close to bronze, just 0.46 s off. The agony didn’t stop there as Liam found himself once more in 4th position in his next race, the 100m Backstroke, 0.34s off the bronze! Nathan White also finished 4th in the last boys’ race of the day, the 50m Butterfly.

First race of Sunday, the boys 200IM and Joe Arcangelo (11) had a great start to the day, taking 4.39s off his entry time (Joe achieved 7 out 8 race pbs over the weekend, good effort, Joe!) whilst Liam Hardman, you guessed it! Finished 4th, with a new pb. Mia-Louise Pilkington (10), the only girl to join the boys on Sunday morning, made a small pb on her 50m free, confirming her time achieved at Bolton, well done. Boys 50m backstroke saw Liam Hardman finish in ………….. 4th. Last race of the morning, boys 100m freestyle, Liam Hardman, his last race of the weekend, finishing in, DRUM ROLL PLEASE ………….. 3rd!!!! A well-deserved BRONZE medal!!!! Congratulations Liam.

And that wasn’t the last of the medals to be won; well done to Marlin, Isaac Brennand (12) from Bolton Metro Swim Squad, competing with his home club, who secured a pb and SILVER medal in the 200m Breaststroke. Also with a SILVER medal in the 200m Breaststroke, Callan Sharples (13). Excellent work from both of you.

All in all a super weekend of racing and once again the coaches and team managers would like to thank the swimmers for their exemplary behaviour, they were a credit to the club and to their families. I’d also like to thank our swimmers’ families for supporting their childrens’ attendance at galas, which is an important and integral part of their development as competitive swimmers.

The full weekend’s results can be found here: