Abi becomes Hampshire Champion for third successive year.

Abi becomes Hampshire Champion for third successive year. Abigail Lacey of Seaclose Swimming Club became the Hampshire ASA County 200m Individual Medley Champion for the third year in a row at the second of three weekends of Championship swimming action. Her time of 2.29.35 sec gave her the title which she also won at age 12 and 13. Abi also topped this off by winning the 50m Breaststroke title in a time of 36.50sec and along with a further seven medals she gained nine medals from a possible 11 events. Abi won silver in the 100m Freestyle and 200m Backstroke and Bronze Medals in the 400m Individual Medley, 400m Freestyle, 50m Fly, 50m Freestyle and 200m Freestyle; there was a fourth in the 50m Backstroke and fifth in the 100m Breaststroke. The times Abi achieved in all her events have also now qualified her for the South East Regional Championships in May. There were only three Isle of Wight swimmers who were swimming this weekend at the final weekend for the Age Group Championships with the others being Ben Curliss of West Wight Swimming Club and Mia Stillwell of Seaclose. Ben had a busy weekend in the age 14 boys and produced five new personal best times throughout the weekend. Ben’s best result was in the 50m Freestyle where he produced a PB time of 28.06 sec to finish fourth in the final and just miss out on a medal. Ben’s other PB’s were 200m Back 2min 33.15 sec (8th), 200m Freestyle 2 min 16.15 sec (9th), 100m Back 1 min 13.14 sec (10th) and 100m Freestyle 1.01.83 sec (5th). This was Mia Stillwells first ever Championship and she showed her potential for the future in her three events in the 10/11 age group with her highlight being the 200 Individual Medley finishing 12th in a new personal best time of 3 min 16.08 sec. Mia also competed in the 50m back and freestyle events. The championships now move onto the final weekend at Portsmouth which are the youth events for the swimmers aged 15 and over.