‘Count the labradors bobbing in the boot’ – play it next time you’re on an early morning road trip; you’ll be surprised at the number! We were, on the way to the Age Group Counties at Water Meadows on 1st and 2nd March.
Once in situ, the Championships underway, thoughts of cute puppies quickly dissipated; the object of the game changed to ‘count the Portland PBs’ …..
Weekend specials were:
- Michael P with stylish swimming in all four strokes, a 4 second PB in his least favoured 200m Back and just outside best time in 200m Free despite a bit of goggle-bother.
- A full house of new fastest times in the girls’ 50m Free – six of them: Jaime; Gaby with a 1.5 second PB in her first ever County event; Isabelle with a really good start and over 1 second quicker; all three U/14 girls – Dahlia, Esther and Rebecca H – swimming under 31 seconds in top 25 of age group. Now for the hard work towards sub 30 seconds!
- Jaime for a 2.5 second PB in the 100m Fly and 10th place in age group!!
- Stanley for great swims and great PBs in both the 50m Fly (really good underwater work!) and Back (2.4 seconds!).
- All the girls in the 200m Free for new best times – Rebecca, Dahlia (nearly 4 second PB) and Jaime (over 5 seconds!).
- All the 50m Fly girls for feisty swims and fab times, including Beatrice, Gaby, Jaime (14th in age group), Esther (20th) and Dahlia (15th), but especially Bea who was punching the air in delight with a big 2.5 second PB at her first County event.
- Dahlia for polishing off Portland’s first weekend at Counties with a 2 second PB in 200m Breaststroke to finish 14th in age group.
- Dan‘s warm-up tips and squats technique teaching!
- And finally, Dom, for having a Mystic Meg moment, predicting Jaime would swim a 35 point something PB in the 50 Fly, which she did, and Rebecca a 36.59 in the 50 Back – she swam 36.57 ….. spooky.
Congratulations to all our swimmers for a wonderful weekend of swimming – PBs in 75% of races! ‘Well done’ to parents for bearing buttock-numbing benches, if you were lucky enough to get a seat, or surviving long spells of standing in the stifling, hot and sticky atmosphere.
‘THANK YOU!!!’ to Dom and Dan for your support, encouragement and post-race analysis.
Look out for the next round of County Championship swims on 15th & 16th March.
