Special Olympics East Herts (SOEH) hosted the 4th Spring Special Olympics Eastern Regional Swimming Competition at Hertfordshire Sports Village Hatfield on Saturday 9th March 2019. The event attracts swimmers from all over the country, and all of the athletes have a learning disability. Twelve swimmers competed as part of the SOEH Team.
Janet Warrington Disability Head Coach for SOEH and Hoddesdon Swimming Club and also the Swim England Hertfordshire President for 2018-19 said “I really enjoy this competition we have swimmers travel from all of the UK to race each other (Basingstoke, Cheshire, Redditch, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Orpington, Peterborough, Wycombe, St. Albans, Enfield, Essex, Broxbourne and East Herts). This year we had 124 athletes enter races.”
“We also have a great response from our volunteers and Swim England Hertfordshire Officials which is so important, without these volunteers this event would not be possible.”
“Our swimmers achieved 12 personal best times, 3 swimmers were awarded Golden Ribbons because they broke the Maximum Effort Rule meaning they swam extremely fast! 6 Gold, 3 Silver, 5 Bronze medals, two 4th placed ribbons and two 5th placed ribbons.”
Selected to swim from Amwell View School and Specialist Sports College to represent SOEH Abdul won gold for his 25m backstroke with a personal best time of 01:03.03 and a silver for the 50m freestyle 42.59 seconds.Jack won a silver in the 50m freestyle with a personal best time of 01:24.29.
Darcie selected by Hoddesdon SC and representing SOEH won a gold medal in the 25m freestyle with a personal best time of 17.08 seconds.
Jess won a bronze medal for her 25m backstroke in a personal time of 41.19 and a 4th placed ribbon in the 25m freestyle (35.43).
Philip won two gold medals for his 25m freestyle (35.53) and 25m backstroke in a new personal best time (38.45).
Thomas brought home a Golden Ribbon for his 100m Freestyle smashing his entry time by 53 seconds! (01:52.20), a gold medal for his 25m backstroke in a pb time of 22.69 seconds and a 5th placed ribbon for the 25m freestyle (22.19).Luke also received a Golden Ribbon for his 50m freestyle beating his entry time by 18 seconds (01:06.55) and a bronze for the 25m backstroke (44.25). Matt won a silver in the 50m freestyle beating his entry time by 0.01 and gaining a new personal best time (01:21.68).
Wendy won gold in the 100m freestyle with a pb (02.55.82) and bronze in the 50m freestyle (01:22.44). Alexandra brought home a Golden Ribbon for her fantastic performance in the 100m freestyle (02:30.38) and a bronze in the 50m freestyle pb time (01:05.46). Laura came 4th in the 50m freestyle (01:38.75). Ruby won bronze in the 200m freestyle (04:22.07) and a 5th placed ribbon in the 25m freestyle (25.25) and silver medal in the 25m butterfly (32.19).
A full set of results and this report can be found on the Special Olympics website (www.specialolympicseastherts.org) on the Swimming Page and under the Latest Reports section.
Next event is the SO Eastern Regional Athletics Competition on Saturday 8th June 2019 at Wodson Park Sports and Leisure Centre. If you would like to volunteer please contact Janet via the SOEH website.
Download full report with swimmer images.
