Alec swims to victory with 5 gold medals
On November 15th, Paignton Swimming Club held their annual Club Championship Sprint Finals at Torbay Leisure Centre. Dartmouth Academy Year 7 student, Alec Farquharson, competed in the under 12 year age category, a particularly competitive age group that required a qualifying round of races in early October. The races started at 4:30pm in front of a crowd of around 150 parents and family members.
Alec won gold medals in all of his 5 events! In the Individual Medley, Alec’s strength at butterfly gave him a convincing lead after one length which he maintained through the other three strokes. Breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke were each raced over a distance of 100m with Alec achieving narrow victories in all three. Alec was particularly pleased with his performance in backstroke; a stroke in which one of his competitors specialises and represents Paignton in inter-club competitions. In butterfly, his favourite stroke, Alec swam to victory over one length (33.3m) in under 24 seconds. It has been a busy time for Alec in swimming, the middle distance championships have been swum every Monday over the past 5 weeks. Alec has recorded victories in all races bar backstroke in which he came second. He is the only 11 year old swimmer from Paignton to have achieved qualifying times for the Devon County Championships in January in all strokes. With rule changes introduced this year by the governing body, qualification has become substantially more difficult and it appears likely that the number of competitors in each race will be halved compared to last year. Alec has excelled in butterfly in which he set a new club record in the 200m, in a time which for the second year will qualify him for the South West Regional Championships in June 2015. In 2014, Alec was one of only four 10 year olds to qualify for the under 12 200m butterfly from the six counties that constitute the South West. Alec has also had success in the Western Arena League. Swimming for Paignton he is, after two rounds, undefeated in 50m butterfly and has thus beaten competitors from 14 other clubs in the South West. Congratulations and well done for your amazing achievements Alec!
