Excelling in the National Swimming Finals
Congratulations to all 13 swimmers who represented Davenies at the London Aquatic Centre on Saturday. The Olympic pool proved to be a cauldron of excitement and all participants swam exceptionally well, many beating personal best times. The four relay teams were up first. The U11 medley relay team finished 5th in their heat, 13th overall from a regional starting line-up of 124 schools. They smashed their qualifying time by nearly 5 seconds. A great swim! The U12 medley relay team finished 6th overall, before the same four boys re-grouped to swim their freestyle relay. Their 4th Place finish in a PB time of 56.61s was immense! Over 70 teams from 70 different schools competed in this event at the regional round, including swimming royalty and eventual medallists Millfield Prep, Kelly College and Dulwich Prep. The U13 freestyle team also recorded a best team performance time, finishing one better than their qualifying position and enjoying every minute of the experience. Former Davenies’ pupil, Richard Jenkins, swam for Millfield Prep in the same race! It was then the turn of the four individual qualifiers. Dylan Moore raced his best Semi-Final, 25m Backstroke in the sub-20 second time of 19:89s, narrowly missing out on a final place. Similarly, William Alexander had a tight race in his U12 50m Backstroke to finish strongly, but just outside the final placings. Alex Moore qualified for his U12 50m Breaststroke event in 3rd place from a starting line-up of 77 swimmers. His qualifying time coming into the event was 38.61s. In his semi-final race at the Olympic pool on Saturday he swam faster, 36.76s, to qualify for the final in second position. In a high-tension final, and Alex has been in a few, he recorded a brilliant time of 36.5s finishing 2nd, just two-tenths behind the winner. Great racing, Alex! Noah Wheeler then steps up to swim his U12 Freestyle Final in the penultimate race of the day at five past six! He also qualified 2nd going into his final, but a full half second down on the leader. It would take a PB to get even close. At the turn Noah was ahead by a fraction, but had he gone off too quickly? 28.65s later, and with a new PB recorded, the answer was no! A fantastic race that went right down to the splash finish on the electronic time pads. How tight was the race? All swimmers finished within a second and half of each other! An extraordinary race to be in, let alone win! Moments afterwards Noah was crowned National U12 50m Freestyle Champion 2019. Amazing! A superb, record breaking, national-champion-crowning day out for all – and what an experience to swim in the Olympic pool! Well done to all the boys for their exceptional efforts and to the travelling, pom-pom supporters’ team who made the most noise and cheered Davenies on from start to finish.
