Personal bests and medals galore for Deepings Swimming Club in Norwich

The Deepings squad were in good form in Norwich.

A series of personal best performances brought Deepings Swimming Club huge success at the City of Norwich Swimming Club open meet last weekend, with swimmers across all ages coming away with medals.

The squad of 13, aged from nine to 25, won 18 medals over the two days, competing against City of North, Team Ipswich, City of Ely, Great Yarmouth, North Norfolk Vikings and Thetford Dolphins at the Sportspark pool at the University of East Anglia.

Deepings newly appointed boys team captain Jacob Briers led by example, winning five medals from his six events in the boys 14yrs age group. He achieved Lincolnshire county qualifying times in all six races, which were also all swum in new personal bests.

A five-second PB in the 400 individual medley (IM) saw Jacob win bronze in a time of 5:25.60. He went one better in the shorter 200IM, clinching silver in 2:29.42, a three-second PB. Jacob also won silver in the 50m breaststroke, plus bronze in the 200m breaststroke and 200m freestyle, the latter with a four-second PB.

All three Deepings boys competing in the 400IM came away with medals, showing excellent versatility across the four strokes.

Oliver Shepherd won silver in the 13yrs age group with a three-second PB of 5:55.24, while James Cash claimed silver in the 12yrs age group with a staggering near two-minute PB time of 6:04.02, which also dipped under the county qualifying time. James also achieved county times in the 200IM and 100m freestyle.

Oliver took two more medals at the open meet with bronze in the 100m backstroke and 200IM, the latter in the county qualifying time. He was narrowly outside the medals after a superb swim in the 100m freestyle, but did achieve the county time after knocking five seconds off his previous best time to touch home in 1:05.80.

Five girls added to the medal tally, including the club’s only gold medal of the weekend.

Nine-year-old Millie Edwards was the golden girl with an excellent swim in the 50m butterfly. She achieved a hat-trick of silver medals in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke and added a pair of bronze medals in the 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke for a personal medal haul of six.

Mieke McDonald dropped her 100IM time by almost five seconds to win silver in the 12yrs age group in 1:21.43, comfortably achieving the county qualifying time. She added a second silver with a tremendous swim in the 50m freestyle, setting another PB and county time.

While just outside the medals in the 200m backstroke, Mieke achieved her third county time of the weekend with a sub three-minute swim of 2:55.71, a seven-second PB.

Twelve-year-old Charlotte Jenkinson took bronze after competing in one of the toughest events for the first time, the 200m butterfly. Her time of 3:29.73 was less than two seconds off the county time.

Chloe Bellis won silver in the 11yrs 200IM while Annabel Shepherd collected the team’s final medal of the weekend with bronze in the 100m butterfly. Annabel also achieved her first ever county qualifying time, finishing in a time of 1:53.34.

Outside the medals, but also swimming her first county time was Lucy Jenkinson in the 50m backstroke.

Sam Peeroo, Deepings Swimming Club head coach, said: “All the hard training and focus on skills is really starting to pay off with some very fast swimming and lots of county times. We had a fantastic meet, and the swimmers should be very proud of their achievements.”

Full squad: Emma Affleck, Chloe Bellis, Jacob Briers, James Cash, Millie Edwards, Charlotte Jenkinson, Lucy Jenkinson, Mieke McDonald, Isabella Reynolds, George Shaw, Annabel Shepherd, Oliver Shepherd and Isobel Vause.