Sweatman and Pugh still make the grade (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Sweatman and Pugh still make the grade

10:40am Friday 4th January 2013 in Tewkesbury

TWO Pershore Swimming Club team-mates tasted success against some of the best swimmers in the country as the Grade One Winter Festival Open Meet in Corby.

Tazmin Pugh won two gold medals, four silver and two bronze medals at the Northamptonshire event, while Simon Sweatman set the second fastest 50m time ever recorded by the Amateur Swimming Association for a 10-year-old.

Pugh began by taking bronze in the 800m freestyle with a new long course pb of 9.56.89. A disappointing fourth in the 200m freestyle (2.18.95) was quickly forgotten when she scooped bronze in the 200m backstroke.

A silver in the 100m butterfly in 1.09.73 was then followed by a new long course pb in the 50m freestyle for gold in 29.83.

Her second day started with a silver medal in the 400m freestyle with a new pb of 4.51.48. A time of 1.10.81 then saw Pugh take gold in the 100m backstroke before she took silver in both the 200m Individual Medley and 100m freestyle.

Despite her efforts, she was unable to match the qualifying times of the 100m butterfly she has already achieved for next July’s National Age Group Champs in Sheffield.

Sweatman was up against swimmers nearly 18 months older.

However, he followed up his seventh place in the 400m freestyle, achieved in a time of five hours 26 minutes six seconds, by taking bronze in the 100m backstroke in 1.20.37 and 100m freestyle in 1.09.40.

His second day of competition began in style as he set a long course (50m) time of 30.48 seconds to make him the second fastest 10-yearold boy over the distance since the ASA started recording. This moved Sweatman to second in the UK end-of-year rankings and earning him the under 11s silver medal.

In the 200m freestyle, Sweatman again took four seconds off his personal best time with 2.32.01 to finish seventh overall, before rounding off his events with fourth in the 200m backstroke in 2.47.94.

Meanwhile, Pugh will be representing Hereford and Worcestershire in the sixway Inter-County match against Cheshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Shropshire in February.