12 August 2011
A large team of 44, many of whom were travelling to an away meet for the first time, came home from Swansea with 31 medals; including 12 gold.
Daily Reports
Day 1
City of Leeds started the 2011 Welsh Summer Nationals in a positive manner with many of the teams 44 swimmers producing lifetime best performances in their first swims. After the morning and afternoon heat sessions City of Leeds had 12 finalists for the first finals session.
The first finals session showed that the City of Leeds were without doubt the most vocal team on poolside as the finalists set the tone for the rest of the week.
First up Olivia White swam to a silver medal in the Girls 50m breaststroke from lane 8 in a lifetime best. Next up Lewis Evers, Richard Mawson, Callan Jack and David Keighley went in the Boys 200m individual medley. Lewis finished 1st, closely followed by Richard in 2nd, with Callan Jack being just touched out to 4th place. David Keighley finished in 8th with all four of the boys producing lifetime bests. Jessica Manning and Abigail Burton followed the boys and produced the second 1 – 2 finish of the evening for the City of Leeds with Jess finishing 1st just ahead of Abi in 2ndin the Girls 200m individual medley both with lifetime best performances.
Lewis and Callan returned to the pool for their second final of the evening and were joined by Toby Kitching in the Boys 100m backstroke. Lewis won his second gold of the evening with Callan finishing 6th and Toby 8th. The final swims of the evening were Jess and Abi in the Girls 100m backstroke. Jess produced a best time to finish 2nd with Abi finishing 8th just outside her best.
Day 2
The second day of competition started with the Boys and Girls 400m freestyle in the morning heats. With the City of Leeds swimmers continuing their form from the night before Lewis Evers, Richard Mawson and Callan Jack finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the Boys event with Abigail Burton finishing 2nd in the Girls event all with lifetime best swims.
The afternoon heats session finished with the City of Leeds having 8 finalists for the day 2 finals session and a host of lifetime best performances.
First up in the finals was Joe Morris who finished 3rd in the Boys 50m freestyle just outside his best time set in the heats. Next was Linda Shaw who finished in 1st again just outside her lifetime best set in the heats.
David Keighley was the City of Leeds only representative in the final of the Boys 100m breaststroke and he produced a lifetime best to finish just outside the medals in 4th. In the Girls 100m breaststroke, Jessica Manning won her second gold medal of the competition, breaking the meet record in the process, with Layla Black producing an outstanding swim to come 3rd in a lifetime best. Abigail Burton came 8th just outside her best time from the heats.
Finishing the day in the pool were Linda Shaw and Olivia White in the Girls 200m individual medley. Both produced lifetime best performances with Linda finishing 2nd and Olivia 4th.
Day 3
With the competition moving into its third day the City of Leeds were going from strength to strength. With the heats for the 200m backstroke and 100m freestyle providing nearly all of the teams 44 swimmers with swims and lifetime best performances to go with them the City of Leeds supplied 13 finalists for the day 3 finals, their highest tally so far.
Olivia White led the way in the finals session for the second time during the competition. After a controlled heat swim Olivia produced a lifetime best performance in the to come 2nd in the Girls 100m breaststroke.
In the Boys 200m backstroke Lewis Evers swam to his third gold medal of the competition with Callan Jack finishing 3rd and Richard Mawson 5th, all in lifetime best times. In the Girls 200m backstroke Jessica Manning came 4th and Abigail Burton 6th again in lifetime best times.
The Boys 100m freestyle saw Lewis win his fourth gold of the competition finishing first, just outside his best time. Richard Mawson came 5th in a lifetime best and Callan Jack 8th, just outside his time from the heats. In the Girls 100m freestyle Abigail Burton won her first Gold Medal in a lifetime best with Jessica Manning finish 6th, just outside her heat time. Cleo Gorringe, swimming in her first final, finished 4th in the Girls 100m freestyle equalling her lifetime best.
The final swim of the day saw Linda Shaw take to the water in the Girls 800m freestyle. After a tough swim Linda finished in 7th falling just short of her lifetime best.
Day 4
Day for provided a welcome rest for many of the City of Leeds swimmers, however the 8 swimmers who did swim managed to produce 7 lifetimes best times swim themselves into 5 finals.
The afternoon heat session finished with the Girls 200m freestyle team winning the silver medal after posting an outstanding time in the first of two heats.
Linda Shaw took to the water first in the Girls 50m backstroke finishing in 8th just outside of her lifetime best from the morning heats. Next in the water were Lewis Evers, Callan Jack and Richard Mawson in the Boys 200m butterfly. Despite all three boys producing lifetime best swims they finished 4th, 5th and 7th. Final swim of the day was Maise Boyes in the Girls 200m butterfly. Maise produced her second lifetime best of the day to finish in 7th in her first final.
Day 5
Day five saw a return to the pool for most of the City of Leeds teams 44 swimmers with 8 swimmers making the evening finals session after the morning heats. In the afternoon session Richard Mawson produced a lifetime best performance to win the Boys 400m individual medley and break the meet record with Callan Jack finishing 3rd in another lifetime best time.
In the finals session Olivia White again set the tone with a scintillating swim in the Girls 200m breaststroke. Olivia produced a lifetime best swim to win gold leading from start to finish.
In the Boys 200m freestyle Lewis Evers, Richard Mawson and Callan Jack gave the City of Leeds their second 1, 2, 3 of the competition. Lewis finished in 1st with Richard 2nd and Callan 3rd all beating their times from the heats. In the Girls 200m freestyle Abigail Burton won her second gold of the competition, finishing first in a lifetime best and meet record time. Jessica Manning swam a lifetime best to come 4th and Kerrie Sinclair, competition in her first final of the competition, finished 7th, just outside her best time set in the heats.
The last swim of the day was Ben Young in the boys 100m butterfly. Ben finished 7th in a very close final, just outside the lifetime best he set in the heats.
Day 6
With everyone feeling the effects of five days of hard racing the City of Leeds swimmers produced a fantastic display of tough swimming to maintain their level of performance on the final day of competition.
Olivia White produced a lifetime best in the Girls 400m individual medley to win the bronze medal with five swimmers securing themselves a place in the last final session of the competition.
Lewis Evers finished off his week with 2nd in the Boys 100m butterfly in a lifetime best time. Jessica Manning and Amelia Clynes came 4th and 6th respectively in the Girls 100m butterfly both just short of their lifetime bests.
The City of Leeds finished their campaign with Layla Black and Abigail Jack in the Girls 200m breaststroke final. Fighting each other all the way Layla and Abigail both produced lifetime best times. In a close finish Layla touched 3rd to win her second medal with Abigail 4th in her first final of the competition.
After 6 days and 18 sessions of tough swimming the City of Leeds finished the week with:
- 12 Gold
- 12 Silver
- 7 Bronze
- 55 Finalists
Well done to everyone involved for an enjoyable and rewarding week.