Report by Shirley Coop
With a haul of eight medals, Ciara Cassidy was the top local swimmer at the recent Derventio Excel Age Group Swim Meet in Sheffield.
At the 50 metre pool in Ponds Forge, Ciara's two Golds came in the 50m and 100m butterflym with the excellent times of 35.40 and 1 min 20.16.
The 50m and 200m backstroke brought her two Silvers, while Bronzes came in the 200m butterfly, 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle.
In two further events over the Easter weekend meet - the 100m backstroke and the 400m freestyle - she finished Fourth.
This was a tremendous performance from the ten year old, competing in ten events over just two days in her first off-Island competition and her first time in a 50m pool.
11 year old Ben Kebbell also swam in 10 events, and came away with a Gold and a Bronze, and achieved top ten finishes in all the rest. His Gold came with a time of 36.61 for the 50m butterfly and the Bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
The two other Manx medal winners were 13 year old Stephanie Brew and 12 year old Duncan Wilson. Wilson’s time of 4 min 45.24 in taking Silver in the 400m freestyle was a massive pb, and just outside the qualifying time for the National Championships.
Brew’s two Bronzes came in the sprint events, the 50m breaststroke and butterfly. Her time of 38.35 for the former takes her within a second of the Island Junior Record, with almost three years still to go as a junior.
Just out of the medals, but with some outstanding swims was 16 year old Poppy Evans, who rewrote the Isle of Man Long Course Record books in the three breaststroke events.
Her first swim was the 200m, during which she broke 50m and 100m records on her way to a superb time of 2 min 48.74. The following day she swam in the two shorter events and again lowered the records to 36.14 for the 50m and 1 min 18.81 for the 100m.
This gave her two 4th places and a 5th and her 200m time is inside the National Championships qualifying time.
12 year olds Ben Donaldson and Paige Lace each came away with pbs in all of their events, with Donaldson finishing 5th in the 50m breaststroke and 100m freestyle.
In the 16 and over age group, Heather Millar and Phillip Harrison put in some solid performances despite illness interrupted training, as did 14 year old Lauren Trimble.
Pictured: The Isle of Man team with double Olympic Gold medallist Rebecca Addlington. Left to right: Lauren Trimble, Paige Lace, Ciara Cassidy, Simon Hartley (team manager), Rebecca Addlington, Ben Donaldson, Duncan Wilson, Stephanie Brew, Heather Millar, Ben Kebbell, Phillip Harrison and Poppy Evans.
