Worcester travelled to Nuneaton on Saturday 11th July to contest the Mercian League Final, experiencing something of déjà vu!
For the third year running, the top 4 places were occupied by the same 4 clubs: Leamington, Coventry, Stratford and Worcester, with this year Worcester having to settle for a very creditable 4th place
Leamington proved very worthy winners but it was tight for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th with the final points: Leamington 230, Coventry 182, Stratford 174, Worcester 163, Redditch 161 and Bilston 133.
The Mercian League is aimed at swimmers below Regional standard i.e. any swimmers who have qualified for Midland Championships are ineligible. Nevertheless, the standard was still very high and first places were hard to come by with Worcester only picking up three wins.
Kai Gooden-Morris and Yasemin Tayar were the stars of the evening, both competing in the 14/under age group. Kai swam a brilliant 100m Backstroke, finishing very fast to overhaul the Leamington swimmer in the final few strokes whilst Yasemin dominated her 100m Butterfly, leading all the way from the front… before being joined by Ellie McGinnes, Charlotte Yates and Emily Stancer to also win the Girls 14/u Medley Relay.
There were many other fine swims too…with the Open girls team of Caitlin Adair (IM and Breaststroke), Emily Stancer (Backstroke), Daisy Ellis (Butterfly) and Emma Lovesey (Freestyle) leading by example, all notching up important 2nd place finishes for the team
The full squad was: Lydia Cooper, Maisie Lyons, Jessica Dobson, Ciara Mahanta, Becky Yates, Leyla Tayar, Lottie Trevethan, Natasha Dobson, Ellie McGinnes, Charlotte Yates, Yasemin Tayar, Hannah Matthews, Emily Stancer, Caitlin Adair, Daisy Ellis, Emma Lovesey, Jack Sweeney, Michjael Agoston, James Vaughan, Nathan Redfern, Daniel Day, George Glover, Isaac Shepherd, Max Rice, Kai Gooden-Morris, Sam Clayton, Aaron Cook, Matthew Redfern, Glenn Strachan and Oscar van Vuren.
