This Is Guernsey

GSC star Ben Lowndes beat his own prevous record for 100m freestyle. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0508571)

KRISTINA NEVES and Ben Lowndes were the stars as 42 personal bests were set at the Guernsey Swimming Club’s 100m freestyle championships.

A record 82 swimmers, 27 of them debutants over the distance, competed in the event with Neves and Lowndes each breaking a record.

In the 12/13 age group, Neves swam a new PB of 1-03.17 to win the gold and erase the previous championship best set by Sam Lowndes in 1998. Lowndes in the 16 and over age group was pushed, as expected, over the first half of the race by Matt Girard, but won gold in 53.12, erasing his own 2006 record.

Neves’s time was also a new GSC allcomers’ age-group record previously set by Sam Herridge in 1990.

Nicole Hewlett and Ellie Ogier both recorded personal bests to claim silver and bronze respectively.

Girard took silver and Matt Butt completed the medal-winners. Stewart Hume also went under the one-minute barrier in fourth.

The event saw the introduction of a new age group as those eight and nine were given their own category.

In this, there were comfortable wins for Georgina Tapp and Lewis Winberg in the girls and boys respectively.

Tapp was followed home by Honor Anderson, a fairly new comer to the competitive set-up, and Jade Ferbrache won the bronze. Ben Le Tocq and Harry Bushby followed Winberg respectively.

The largest number of competitors was in the girls’ 10-11 age group in which there were 16 entries.

Leah Winberg and Courtney Chapman had their usual battle in the pool over who was going to come first.

Winberg won gold, Chapman the silver and a much improved India Lanyon swam a five-second personal best to take the bronze.

Two in this age category swam extremely large PBs. Eleanor Shaw improved by 13 seconds and Kerry Bowden did so by 14.

In the 10-to-11-year-old boys, Alexander Batiste was a comfortable winner finishing 11 seconds ahead of Louis Falla, who still has another year to go in this group.

Callum Penney, also with another year in the group, claimed the bronze.

The most improved in this category was Brendan Chapman who clocked a massive 23-second PB.

In the 12/13 boys, Pierce Gregory continued to reap the rewards for his attitude to training and was rewarded with the gold medal and a new PB. Luke Winberg took the silver and Luke Bourgaize the bronze.

Only one second separated the medallists in the girls’ 14/15 age group. Elisha Benstead won the event in 1-11.57, Sophie Lythgoe silver in 1-11.57 and Millie Ingrouille bronze in 1-12.57.

In the 14/15 boys, Daniel Brittain recorded a two-second PB to win the gold.

Brittain was pushed all the way by Daniel Airley, who won silver. Kevin Penney, another of the fast improving swimmers on the scene at the moment, was rewarded with the bronze medal.