Four swimmers from Sid Vale Sharks achieved the county qualifying times to represent the club in the recent Devon County Championships held over a number of weekends in February and March at the Plymouth Life Centre.

Victoria Wyant, Hannah Beglin, Issy Beech and Hannah Rudgard were the four.

Up against the best swimmers from the National champions Plymouth Leander, and other top clubs Kelly College and Exeter City, to name but two, the Sidmouth swimmers performed admirably and did themselves and the club proud. All the swimmers achieved personal best times with some swimmers knocking as much as 10 seconds off their previous best. It is an achievement in itself to have gained the qualifying time for the championships and the results were reward for the hard work and commitment shown by the swimmers.

Top honours went to Hannah Rudgard who in the 11 and under age category finished fourth in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1 minute 32.63seconds, fourth in the 200m breaststroke 3:24.32, fifth in the 100m individual medley in 1:24.00, sixth in the 100m backstroke in 1:24.49 and 11th in the 100m freestyle in a time of one minute 15 seconds.

Hannah Beglin (11and under), finished 10th in the 100m breaststroke, 12th in the 200m breaststroke and 13th in the 100m backstroke.

Issy Beech (11 and under), finished 12th in the 100m backstroke and 14th in the 100m freestyle.

Vicky Wyant (13 and under), finished 15th in the 100m individual medley, 19th in the 100m breaststroke and 22nd in the 100m backstroke.

In next week’s Sidmouth Herald there will be a report on the club’s swimmers at the Devon County Sprint Gala for which we have a number of swimmers entered.

Sidmouth Swimming club are still looking for a level 2 or 3 coach to help with coaching sessions. If you feel you could help then the contact is via email to sidvalesharks@gmail.com