A SWIMMING club took its biggest ever team to a national championship and achieved record success.
Abingdon Vale Swimming Club (AVSC) was represented by 10 athletes at the Swim England National Winter Championships, and qualified for 25 events.
Ralph Allen, Chris Emberlin, Demetrios Gonias and Adrien Storck-Wihlidal all competed for the first time at nationals, joining Jack Allman and Kayden Sillah in the juniors category.
Gonias gained personal bests in five of his seven events, breaking two club records in the process, while over the course of the competition, AVSC athletes achieved 16 personal best times.
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Ellen Bagley had an impressive meet and qualified for the senior final in all three of her events. She lowered the AVSC 50m breaststroke record by almost half a second in her heat (32.53), and shaved off another 0.09 seconds in the final (32.44).
On the final evening of the meet, she broke her own 100m breaststroke club record with a time of 1:10.06.
Can Tugcetin was also on top form, posting lifetime bests in each of his three races, and making the senior final in the 200m breaststroke.
Head coach Amanda Ford said: “Winter nationals require a high level of work and commitment to perform at a high level over the course of four days.
“At this year’s winter nationals, the days were particularly long, with morning warm-ups starting at 7.45am and some finals ending at 8pm in the evening.
“This was a record-breaking meet for us, with so many exciting heats, finals, club records, and personal best times achieved. All our swimmers stepped up to perform their best.”
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