This meet was more about chasing new personal bests and National Qualifying Times rather than medals, and what a weekend it was.

Faced with some of the toughest competition Killerwhales have met this year including British and foreign international competitors the small squad of Killerwhales swimmers more than rose to the challenge.

On day 1 both backstroke specialists Molly Sparks (aged 12) and Katinka Merchan (16) picked up NQT’s in the 200 backstroke within minutes of each other. Que hysteria amongst the squad!  Molly finished 3rd in the 11/12 year age group with a fantastic swim whilst Katinka maintained her stroke rate following her trademark fast start to finish in 4th spot in the 15-16 year age group and 2 seconds inside her required qualifying time for the National Championships later in the year.

Day two repeated the dose with Lewis Clifford-Stephenson exploding off the blocks in the 100 freestyle to storm home with his NQT in the fifteen year age group to the cheers of the ‘Whales. Seventeen year old Kalei Andrews seemed to improve every time she got in the water and capped a fine weekends performance with a determined 400 individual medley to gain her second NQT in two weeks.

There were some fine performances too and a host of new personal bests from Henny Andrews (18), Tom Webb (15), Charlie Fox (11) and Danielle Rooke (12) and special mentioned must be made of a heroic effort by 11 year old Connor Kearns who narrowly missed out on his NQT with a fantastic swim in the 200 Breaststroke.

Report of UK Challenge Meet at Hatfield, 16th & 17th May