It's A Hat-Trick!! PL Win Third Successive National Arena League Swimming Title!
Monday, April 26 2010 @ 01:19 PM BST
Contributed by: PL Swimming
Sheffield, England: Plymouth Leander have become the club champions of England & Wales for this third successive year in winning the 41st National Arena Swimming League Cup Final at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
Only City of Southampton in the early 1970’s and City of Leeds through the 80’s and the 90’s have managed a consecutive hat-trick of National League titles, with Plymouth romping home in once of the most impressive winning margins in the League’s history, nearly 90 points clear of second placed Stockport Metro, a British Swimming ITC.
In lifting the title once more, Plymouth ensured a number of other significant milestones en route. First to be added to their haul was the Relay Challenge Trophy, beating Millfield by an accumulate total of 59.3 seconds across the eight relay events. Of the six Top Age Group Athletes Awards, Plymouth were to take five, courtesy of Myles Pillage and Meryl Attrill in the 11 years age group, Harry Ackland following his English Age Group Record in the 13 years age band and Joe Patching and Achieng Ajulu-Bushell in the 15 years category (ages as of 31/12/09).
No less that eight meet record were claimed by the Plymouth team this time of asking:
Male 11 years 50m Butterfly
Myles Pillage (30.32) - Formerly James Doolan (City of Salford) 2002
Male 13 years 100m Backstroke
Jack Smith (1:03.07) – Formerly Steven Cumper (Portsmouth Northsea) 1998
Male 13 years 100m Breaststroke
Harry Ackland (1:08.49) – Formerly David Bartlett (Portsmouth Northsea) 1998
Male 15 years 100m Backstroke
Joe Patching (58.76) – Formerly Sam Straughan (Plymouth Leander) 2009
Female 15 years 100m Breaststroke
Achieng Ajulu-Bushell (1:12.02) – Formerly Rachael Solway (Guildford City) 2008
Female 13 years 200m Medley Relay
Plymouth Leander (2:04.75) – Formerly Beckenham 2005
(Abigail Carne, Jade Scott, Lara Cosford, Grace Vertigans)
Female Senior 200m Medley Relay
Plymouth Leander (1:56.27) – Formerly Lincoln Vulcans 2005
(Amy McVeigh, Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, Paulina Schmiedel, Emma Wilkins)
Male Senior 300m Freestyle Relay
Plymouth Leander (2:22.62) – Formerly Millfield 2009
(Antony James, Mark Conroy, Anthony O’Driscoll, Calum Jarvis, Aaron Rickhuss, Steven Beckerleg)
Even with five of their athletes unable to attend the competition due to volcanic ash cloud flight disruptions, the 23 wins across the 50 events helps to cement the programme’s status as the UK’s leading age group and youth programme, with Antony James, Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, Emma Wilkins and Steven Beckerleg also underlining what the PL coaches are able to achieve at the senior end of the sport. Head Coach Jon Rudd said, “This is always a great team event, one that we love to support and it is worth a great deal of kudos to the winning team. Along with our terrific successes at the recent British Championships, we look to use this victory to spur our athletes on into the national and international events waiting for us this coming summer”.
Final Points
1. Plymouth Leander 422
2. Stockport Metro 336
3. Millfield 328
4. Camden Swiss Cottage 288
5. Guildford City 271
6. Hatfield 270
7. City of Liverpool 267
8. Bournemouth/Ferndown 219
9. City of Peterborough 177
10. Boldmere 174
Plymouth Leander would like to thank the support of the Plymouth Sports Development Unit and Tyr for this event.
Meet Results can be found here
Comments (0)
Plymouth Leander
http://www.plymouthleander.co.uk/article.php?story=20100426131908851