The 2010 Midland Swimming Championships have been held at Coventry’s Olympic 50m pool. These championships see the best swimmers from the nine counties affiliated to the East and West Midlands Swimming Associations come together for a weekend of exciting competition. This year five Stratford Sharks Swimming Club members achieved the demanding qualification standards, Joe Evans (16), George Brear (18), Michael Ankrett (16), Emily Key (18) and Rebecca Tame (16) who was unfortunately unable to compete because of illness.

  On the Saturday morning Joe Evans was first into action in the 400m Freestyle. Despite still being a few weeks short of his 17th birthday, the age cut off date for these championships demanded he competed in the 17/over age group rather than the 15/16yr olds. However Joe made light of this and qualified comfortably for the afternoons final. George Brear was next up in the 50m Breaststroke and was Stratford’s second qualifier for a final place with 4th in the 17/over age group with the added interest of his older brother Adam also qualifying for the final swimming for the City of Coventry.

  Emily Key took on the 200m Freestyle in the first of her two events of the day finishing a respectable 11th in the heats. The 100m Freestyle saw Joe Evans and George Brear in the 17/over age group joined by Michael Ankrett in the 15/16yr olds, Evans finishing 3rd to book his second final spot of the day in a seasons best and improving his qualifying time for this summers National Championships, George Brear taking 10th and Michael Ankrett 24th in his age group.

  The clubs fourth finals place of the morning heats was achieved by Emily Key in the 50m Freestyle with 7th place before Michael Ankrett took 26th in the 15/16yr Fly. The afternoon finals got off to a great start courtesy of Joe Evans in the 17/over 400m Freestyle with 3rd place, his time also gaining him 3rd place in the overall Championship. In an extremely tough 17/over 50m Breaststroke final George Brear narrowly missed out finishing 4th.

  Joe Evans was the clubs next competitor in the 17/over 100m Freestyle against some of the countries top Youth sprinters finishing a very creditable 6th despite not quite matching his heat time. One who did improve on their heat time was Emily Key who after qualifying 7th fastest for the 50m Freestyle couldn’t quite force her way into the top 3 finishing 4th. On the second day Joe Evans was again first into action in the 17/over 100m Fly just missing out on the final with 9th place although with his main event to come he was using this one as just a warm up.

  George Brear underlined his Breaststroke abilities taking 4th fastest in the 17/over 100m to qualify for the afternoons final. The next men’s event was the 200m Freestyle in which Joe Evans swam comfortably within himself to finish 2nd fastest for the 17/over final. The morning’s heats were rounded off by Emily Key 9th in the 16/over 100m Freestyle and George Brear 12th in the 50m Free.

  In the 17/over 100m Breaststroke final George Brear again found himself against some of the countries best Youth Breaststrokers including one heading for this years European Junior Championships but still competed hard finishing just outside the medals in 4th. Joe Evans finished his Championships off in fantastic style in the 200m Freestyle winning the gold medal in the 17/over age group in a new personal best and club record time and most importantly taking his first Midlands Championship to add to the six Warwickshire County Championships he won in March.

  The Midlands Championships continue in June with the Age Group competition for swimmers aged from 10 to 14 years old which already sees six Stratford Sharks having achieved the qualifying times, Lucy Castle, Olga Hall, Kathryn Lythgo, Josh Walker, Aleksander Forysiak and William Foster who in a fantastic season to date has achieved the full set of qualifying times for his 10yr age group.