Mansfield Swimming Club pair shine for county

They both took part in the 4 x 50m medley relay teams, but it was in their individual events that their talent showed through.

They are both fantastic in the breast stroke event and put on an amazing display.

Rhys managed to knock off over two seconds from his time to set a new personal best of 1.13.02 in the 100m breast and then Tom followed in his event to knock over a second from his time to set a new best of 1.06.45.

These efforts by the boys and the rest of their team helped the Nottinghamshire team to stay in the top division.

Abbie Scott and Grace and Imogen Lynk from Mansfield SC enjoyed top three places in the Retford Open Meet last weekend.

Abbie continued her form by winning both the 200m back and 100m breast events.

She also managed to set two new best times of 2.50.32 in the back and an impressive 1.32.86 in the breast, five seconds faster than her previous time.

Imogen also had another good result, finishing third in the 100m medley in a new best time of 1.41.33 knocking 5.5 sec off her previous best time.

She also managed to shave five seconds from her 200m free time, finishing fourth in 3.17.50.

Grace was close to her best times in the 100m back and finished fourth in the 100m free.

She swam an excellent race in the 400m freestyle, finishing second and smashed her previous time by 8.5 seconds in a new best of 5.31.06.

Mansfield quartet Ben Sharrocks, Henry Slawson, Rhiannon and Rhys Taylor took part in the Robin Hood Long Course open meet at Ponds Forge and swam brilliantly, setting seven new personal best times and just outside their best times in nine events.

Rhys was placed second in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, where he set a new best time in the 50m in 36.10 and the 100m in 1.18.48.

He was also second in the 400m freestyle in 4.34.01, shaving five seconds off his previous best time, also managed a new personal best in the 50m free in 28.64 and placed sixth in the 200m free just outside his best time.

Ben finished eighth in the 400m free just outside his best time and ninth in the 100m free in a new fastest time of 1.03.24. He was also ninth in the 100m breast in 1.24.70, another personal best.

Ben finished sixth in the 200m back just outside his best time.

Henry swam just outside his best time in the 200m individual medley, 200m free and 100m back events. He did set a new best time of 29.79 in the 50m freestyle.

Rhiannon placed 18th in the 50m free and sixth in the 50m breast again just off her best times.

Abbie Scott, Grace and Imogen Lynk and Jake Biggs took part in the Leicester Penguins open meet recently held at Braunstone.

Imogen won the 50m back event in a county qualifying time of 42.52 and placed third in the 50m free, again qualifying for the counties in a time of 38.96. This was a massive achievement for the nine-year-old. who hasn’t been competing for very long.

Grace finished eighth in the 50m free and back events in new best times of 33.73 and 39.18.

She also placed 13th in the 200m free in a personal best time of 2.38.56 and finished 12th in the 200m back event.

Abbie Scott kept up her form, placing third in the 200m free and medley events in new best times of 2.29.17 and 2.52.65.

She was also fourth in the 100m back event in another best of 1.20.33. She has qualified for counties and the club are waiting for the Midland qualifying times to be released but are confident she has qualified for these with the times achieved so far.

Jake finished 12th in the 100m medley event in a new personal best of 1.33.10.

Mansfield Swimming Club had a team of 33 swimmers of various competitive experience take part in the first Matlock Open meet, held at the Arc Leisure Centre.

A total of 130 races were swum by the team with 22 first places, 16 second places and eight third places awarded with many of the swimmers achieving county qualifying times.

Abbie Scott and Ben Sharrocks won all of their races and Rhys Taylor won six out of his seven events.

Other first place winners were Hollie-Mae Dove,Natalee Meldrum, Jess Howarth, Jess Parnell, Charlotte Baguley, Owen-Ben Sladen and Tom Howarth.

The Arena League Round One was held in Rugby at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee pool where Mansfield were victorious against competition from Leicester Sharks B, Wyre Forest, Oldbury, Shrewsbury and Flitwick Dolphins.

There were a total of 50 events and the team took 17 first places,nine second places and 11 x third places.

There were nine individual personal best times set and 44 relay best times.

Mansfield won with 217 points, 21 ahead of Shrewsbury.

The men’s medley relay team of Ben Canavan-Taylor, Tom Howarth, Oli Hempsall and Chris Baguley also set a new club record in the event.