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Swimming: COPS in 26 gold medal bonanza
As the build-up to this year's major championships begins in earnest members of City of Peterborough Swimming club made their way down the A14 to the City of Cambridge Open.
As the build-up to this year's major championships begins in earnest members of City of Peterborough Swimming club made their way down the A14 to the City of Cambridge Open.The 51 swimmers that attended were in good form as they set 145 personal bests (PBs) as well as four club records and three potential county records.
COPS also picked up a total of 73 podium places consisting of 26 gold, 22 silver and 25 bronze medals.
The highlight of the second day is the skins event. The fastest eight swimmers from the 100m freestyle event are pitted against each other in a knockout series of 50m freestyle races.
No boys made the skins finals but three COPS girls were in the top eight. Emily Cook (15) was the first COPS swimmer to be eliminated in the fifth round, putting her in fourth place overall.
The final round was a head-to-head between 14 year-old Zara Bailey and Joanne Longland (15).
Bailey and Longland had qualified in first and second place respectively and the former maintained her strokes and form to just edge last year's winner Longland into second.
Bailey was also in top form in the rest of the competition, winning all four of her events. In addition, Bailey's time of 60.11 seconds in the 100m freestyle is a club record and potential county record.
Longland was also in the hunt for the medals with four gold, two silver and a bronze in her eight races. Her time of 28.15 in the 50m freestyle is a potential county record while her time of 2.30.83 in the 200m butterfly is a club record.
Swimming in her first open meet for COPS was Hannah L Chatfield (9) who took two gold and two bronze medals. In addition her time in the 100m backstroke was a PB by 3.24 seconds and a club record.
COPS? other record-breakers were Charlotte Harrison (14), who set a new potential county record in the 100m backstroke, and Katie Fitzjohn whose 2.83 second PB in the 200m butterfly was also a club best.
Harrison also took silver in the 100m butterfly while Fitzjohn took bronze medal in the 400m individual medley.
Two other COPS girls had five-medal hauls. Fourteen year-old Ellen Williams took three gold, one silver and a bronze while 11 year-old Olivia Standish-Leigh took twogold, two silver and a bronze.
Top boy for COPS was 12 year-old Sam Holmes with four gold and three silver medals. Holmes' achievement was remarkable because on the second day he was unable to continue competing because of a chest infection.
Multiple podium finishes also came from James Newton (11) with two gold, two silver and a bronze medal; Tom Mitchell (11) one gold, one silver and a bronze; Joshua Aylett (12) a gold and a bronze and Lee Clarke (11) also a gold and a bronze.
Also taking the medals for COPS were:
Gaby Balls (16) one silver; Ashley Binns (16) one bronze; Daniel Brown (12) one silver, one bronze; Emily Cook one silver, two bronze; Anthony Coombe (12) two bronze; Taylor Goodby (11) one silver, one bronze; Roxanne Monk (15) one bronze; Molly Norman (13) two silver, three bronze; Heather Pfeiffer (12) one bronze; Emily Pilbeam (12) one silver; Daniel Powell (12) one bronze; Jessica Standish-Leigh(12) one silver; Ottavio Tanzillo (13) one silver; Anthony White (18) one silver, one bronze.
Delighted head coach Ben Negus said: "This was another good meeting for us, showing we are on track for the upcoming championships.
"Although it is still early days I am particularly pleased with the way our swimmers closed out their races this weekend.
"We have been concentrating a lot on starting and finishing technique, which can often be the difference between winning and losing in a close-fought race. These performances reflected the hard work that our swimmers have been putting in on these areas."
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
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