City of Leeds National Qualifying Event
Rotherham Metro swimmers have had another fantastic weekend of swimming this time at the National Qualifying meet Championships held at Leeds from 9th April to 11th April. Many swimmers came away with PB’s, North East times and Matthew Sotheran achieved two more National Qualifying times.
On Friday a total of 10 swimmers competed in the 400 Freestyle and 2 swimmers competed in the 400 IM with 5 reaching their respective finals. In the Freestyle finals leading the way was Matthew Sotheran (13) who once again produced another outstanding performance by leading from start to finish to claim Gold and also achieving his National Qualifying time. Next up was Nicole Clarke (13) who in a very competitive race managed to finish 7th. Finally in the 400 Freestyle finals, Kelsey Longden (14) who took the bronze medal and set the tone for the rest of the weekend.
In the 400 IM finals Josh Hillman (11) and George Russell (12) both finished 5th in their respective finals.
Saturday saw even more swimmers competing and reaching many finals in an extremely competitive and high standard meet. Once again Matthew Sotheran (13) was at the forefront of medals gained by securing, Gold in the 100M Freestyle and silver in the 200m Backstroke. Kelsey Longden (14) reached 3 finals taking 6th place in the 200m Freestyle followed by 4th place in the 100m Fly. Finally it was the 200IM where Kelsey had qualified in 6th position, and going into the final 50 metres in 4th place she raised her game to secure the bronze medal. Josh Whitehurst (14) and George Russell (12) both reached 2 finals, with Josh finishing 8th in the 100M Breaststroke and 4th in the 100M Freestyle while George finished 8th in the 200M Back and 7th in the 200M Fly. Josh Hillman (11) came 7th in the 200M Backstroke final.
On Sunday the final day of swimming still more swimmers reached their individual finals. True to form Matthew Sotheran (13) took gold in the 100M Fly final and in the 200M Freestyle final where he timed his swim to perfection to not only win the gold but to also achieve another National Qualifying time. Kelsey Longden (14) continued her fantastic form by reaching two more finals. In the 100M Freestyle final she was also joined by Kimberley Bush (14), with Kelsey finishing 6th and Kimberley finishing 7th. In the 200M Fly Kelsey swam to a well-deserved 3rd gaining another bronze medal. In the final of the 11 year olds 100M Backstroke there was two finalists from Rotherham competing with Josh Hillman taking 4th and Robert Pearson 5th place. George Russell once again reached the 100M Fly final where he finished 5th.
Other swimmers taking part and producing many PB’s and North East qualifying times were, Robert Kirk (11), Connor Neal (11), Rebecca Britten (12), Jessica Bushby (13), Shannon Eades (13), Laura Gilliott (13), Bethany Woodcock (13), James Newton (13), Sam Pearson (13) and James Shiel (14).