Great Yarmouth Swimming club had five swimmers who had qualified to participate in the 2018 age group regionals at Luton.

The championships are held over three days and are extremely competitive.

Finley Coman reached two finals in the age 13 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle. Finley swum the fastest 50m freestyle of his life in the morning heat (27.38) to qualify third fastest in a time that was almost two seconds faster than his 2017 time. In the final he produced another superb pb of 27.26 and was disappointed to finish fourth.

Finley then swam a strong 100m freestyle heat of 1.02.34 and smashed his previous pb time, finishing in a brilliant 1.00.52 to take a bronze. Head coach Liam Harvey commented: “He went into the final with the most determined look on his face and used the frustration of the miss of a medal in the 50m to swim his heart out to achieve such an impressive time for a swimmer of his age.”

Finley also raced the 50m butterfly, the 100m breaststroke, the 50m breaststroke (37.44 pb) and the 200m freestyle.

The four other swimmers from Great Yarmouth (Harvey Larner, Jasmine Coleman, Jacob Zandbergen and Sam Coman) were all experiencing the regional championships for the first time.

Harvey competed in the boys’ age 11/12 50m freestyle and despite his nerves maintained his focus, smashing his old pb by a whole second (31.17). In the the girls’ 11/12 100m butterfly Jasmine had a fantastic pb time of 1.18.81, taking a huge three seconds off her previous fastest swim. Jacob competed in the boys’ age 14 50m freestyle. Jacob had not been able to train properly in the lead-up to the championships due to ill health but was only just outside his previous pb time and enjoyed the experience.

Sam started positively, with a great pb in the 50m freestyle. His next race was the gruelling 200m butterfly and he achieved a great pb time of 3.07.30 and his highest placing of 11th. He then competed in the 100m freestyle and swam an impressive long course pb of 1.09.46. Sam’s final race was the 100m butterfly. He went out hard and maintained his speed, finishing in a three second pb of 1.22.29.

Earlier Tommy Chandler had competed in the youth regionals for swimmers aged 15 and over. Tommy has been a positive addition to club since rejoining and was the sole representative at these championships. Combining training with revising for his GSCEs has been tough and it showed real dedication to the sport that he chose to participate so close to his exams. Tommy’s strongest stroke has always been breaststroke and he competed in this discipline over three distances: 50m, 100m and 200m. With good pacing and strong technique, he achieved a new long course pb in the 200m and had great swims in the 50m and 100m where he was very close to his fastest times.