The NERs competition also sits in the qualifying window for nationals and as such many swimmers will hope that their time has placed them into the top 24 for their event. This is also one of the few competitions were you can qualify your relay team for the Nationals and Team Steel showed their class in the relays winning 6 out of a of possible 12 relays and getting two 2nd place and two 3rd place finishes. The 14/16 year old girl’s team of Sapphira Gabbani, Issey-May Reeves, Abigail Miles, Grace Conroy won all three of their relays. They are sure to qualify and it will be exciting to see them swim at the British Nationals. Our three best performers at the British Championships were also in action, Charlie and Sam winning their 50 back stroke and 400 Freestyle respectively. Jay looked great over the 200 Freestyle relay posting a time of 1:51.33 over the first leg. It will be great to see these swimmers at the summer nationals and Charlie at the European and World Junior Championships.
Other great performances from the swimmers back from Glasgow were Amy Bell taking Gold over the 200 IM, Lily Boseley and Issey Grant also Gold in the 50 Back and 50 Fly respectively. Reuben Visda was in fantastic form over the 200 Freestyle taking the Gold medal in a new massive PB and going under 1:57 for the first time. Team Steel showed a dominating performance over the 200 Fly taking the entire Podium, with Tom Downs in 1st, Jack To 2nd and Simon Kliment in 3rd. It was also great to see Oliver Crosby back racing after a tough injury, and we hope to see him fully recovered and back in his favourite Breaststroke events.
In total Team Steel took home 25 Golds, 5 silvers and 12 Bronze medals, cementing their position as one of the best performance clubs in the region. Over the next weekend’s we will see the Age Group NERs take place in Leeds and I am sure there will be many more medals and PBs for the younger swimmers of Team Steel.