Widnes Amateur Swimming Club

Cheshire County Championship: March 13-14

DAVID HUNT starred in a great performance by local swimmers at the Cheshire County Championships on Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14.

The championships runs as both an age group event and a senior (open age)/junior (16u) event and on Saturday, David, swimming in the junior 100m butterfly, powered his way through to the gold medal to become the first Widnes ASC swimmer ever to take a Cheshire junior championship title.

David continued to stamp his authority on the championships with another gold medal in the 16 years 100m backstroke in 1.05.7, silver in the 100m freestyle in a great time of 56.7 and bronze for 200m IM.

David's younger brother Stephen, swimming in the 14 year old category, was also in determined mood and, after just missing out on two earlier finals, hung on to a fine 100m backstroke to take the bronze medal.

Also in the backstroke, 15 year old Peter McPartland earned himself a place in the final of the 100m event for sixth place.

Carl Thomas and Gareth Martin proved to be a handful for the opposition in the breaststroke events.

Carl fought hard in a tight finish for the silver medal in the junior 200m in a national qualifying time of 2.35.6, while Gareth made the prestigious senior 50m final and was just pipped into fourth place.

Carl also set a new club record of 2.25.2 for the 200m IM, finishing with the bronze medal.

In the 400m freestyle Neil Higgins smashed his personal best time by 10 seconds despite this being one of his weaker events.

In the ladies breaststroke, 13 year old Leanne Maher comfortably won the 100m gold medal in a national qualifying time of 1.20.9 and finished as fifth placed junior in 37.0.

Claire Dickinson fought hard to reach the final of the 12 year old 100m breaststroke, probably her weakest event, finishing in sixth place and challenged the older girls in the junior category with a great 50m backstroke time of 34.9.

Heather Jones and Laura Dickinson set fine P's in the 50 free (29.9) and 100m backstroke (1.22.1) respectively.

The championships continue with the team events at Stockport on Saturday, March 20 and the final weekend of individual events March 27-28.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.