Sixteen Portland swimmers took to the pool for the latest round of the Sports Centre League, with everyone giving their all in the face of tough competition at Lammas Leisure Centre.
Stanley Toplass was first in the water, with a steady swim in the 100m IM just outside his own previous best. The early signs were that our swimmers were ‘on the up’ personally, with PBs achieved in 5 out of the first 6 races: Lucy Toplass in the 100m IM, Dan Hardy and Isabella Boydell in the 100m backstroke, and Jonny Higham and Beatrice Munro in the 100m fly (with a winning swim for the team in taking over 2 seconds of her previous best).
The following races saw a rather mixed bag for Portland, with several DQs unfortunately recorded after seemingly strong swims. Good form was also shown in their first events of the evening by Alice Brumwell and Bethan Simmons, each swimming two races in quick succession. Gaby Marriott was narrowly beaten into second place in a very closely contested 50m fly. The PBs soon started to flow again, however, with Isabella achieving her second of the evening in the 50m fly. Similar success followed for Jonny in the 100m IM, Adam Boydell in the 50m breaststroke (by a whopping 5 seconds), Stanley in the 50m fly, Briony O’Keeffe in the 100m breaststroke, and then Beatrice once more – this time in the 100m free, with a strong surge late in the race to take 2nd place.
Edward Roberts’ gala got underway with two swims in the 100m backstroke in the 15/U and Open categories, showing great consistency in beating his previous PB on both occasions! It was then the turn of Efan and Mai Drury to put in fabulous swims in successive 50m free races, with both smashing their PBs by many seconds. Mai’s powerful finish was also rewarded with a deserved first place. The pair were soon back in the water for the 50m fly, with Mai again achieving a PB and Efan almost matching his own.
Sandwiched between these performances we saw some more great Portland swims. Lucian Munro and Briony both showed good stamina and racing to achieve PBs in their respective 100 IM events. Yet another personal best was achieved soon after, with William Cranton taking a couple of seconds off his 100m free time. And the final PB of the gala saw Lucian achieve his own second of the evening, this time in the 100m free.
After good all round efforts in the relays, our Portland swimmers threw themselves wholeheartedly into the cannon with a runners-up finish.
Well done to the whole team for their committed performances and a string of personal bests.
Log in and go to Swimmers’ Corner for full results.
