Whitchurch Swimmers Strike Gold at the Counties

Congratulations to Charlotte Evans, Rachel Hares and Charlotte Archdeacon who all won Gold medals at the first weekend of the Shropshire County Swimming Championships which were held at Market Drayton.

Charlotte Evans got the Whitchurch Wasps team off to a tremendous start by winning the first girls’ event, the 200m Freestyle in a personal best time of 2:15.51. She continued to put in some fine performances over the weekend to also win silvers in the 100m and 200m Backstroke, and 200m Individual Medley and Bronze in the 50m Backstroke.

Charlotte Archdeacon was the next gold medallist - winning the 100m Backstroke in a new county record time. She went on to also win golds and set new county records in the 200m and 50m Backstroke and the 200m and 400m Individual Medley. In addition, she won silvers in the 200m freestyle, the 50m Butterfly and the 100m Breastroke.

Rachel Hares made a welcome return to the Whitchurch team by becoming the County 100m Breastroke Champion and winning bronze in the 400m individual medleys. Her Bronze in the 200m Individual Medley made it a clean sweep of the medals for the Whitchurch trio.

But that was not all – other highlights include Lydia Jamieson’s 5 silver and two bronze medals, Annie Mellings’ silver in the 100m Breastroke, Abi Fawcett’s 2 bronzes in the backstroke and Eleanor Reid’s bronze in the 800m freestyle. James Cook also won bronze by swimming a personal best time in the 100m Butterfly.

Bridie Buckingham, age 9, made her debut appearance at the County Championships and put in a personal best performance in the 200m Individual Medley. Personal bests were also achieved by Annabel Cook, Beth Jamieson, Liam Roberts, Thomas Bishop, Rachel Trent, Amelia Penn, Edward Reid, Hayden Cieslielski, Joshua Edge and Callum Trent.

In total, the team won: 7 Golds, 12 Silvers and 9 Bronzes over the two days.

Coach Steve Archdeacon was delighted with the first weekend’s results. “We have had some great races this weekend and I am very proud of all the swimmers who took part.”

The County Championships continue on 13th and 14th March, also at Market Drayton.