DRSA

The 15th Tiverton Open Sprint Meet was held on Sunday 16th July 2006 and was spread over three sessions. This year’s meet was as popular and as competitive as ever with swimmers representing 30 clubs throughout the south west region. Devonport were represented by Charlotte Roberts, Rebekah James, Rebecca Ward, Connie McGregor, Jacob Roberts, Sam Leeke, Abby Ward, Holly Smith, Jade Leeke, Nat Chartres and Tom Mermagen. For the younger swimmers, this was good experience of a big meet with good facilities and a lively atmosphere. All swimmers swam very well with most gaining at least one PB. There were some exceptional performances with a few swimmers gaining 3 PBs in the space of a few hours.

In the first session of the day, Rebekah James reached the final of the girls 10 years 50m butterfly, finishing 6th in a time of 41.86. In the second session, Rebecca Ward was 6th in the final of the girls 11 years 50m backstroke in 41.19.

In the third session, Jade Leeke reached the final of the girls 14 years 50m breaststroke finishing 4th in 42.99. Holly Smith was 5th in the girls 13 years 50m butterfly in a time of 35.21. The highest placing of the day went to Nat Chartres who finished 2nd in the final of the boys 13 years 50m breaststroke in 40.26.

The performance of the day from the Devonport swimmers was by Tom Mermagen, who reached the final of all four sprint events in the boys 14 years age group. He finished 6th in the 50m backstroke in 37.30, he was 6th in the 50m freestyle in 30.81 and 5th in the 50m breaststroke in 44.37. Tom also made the final of the 50m butterfly where he was fourth fastest qualifier, but unfortunately had to withdraw through injury.

Finally, a big thank you to Debbie Leeke, who was team manager for the day. Debbie was at poolside for almost 13 hours! She made sure that all of the Devonport swimmers were in the right place at the right time and she cheered on every swimmer in every race – well done!