Burnham-On-Sea Swim Academy is celebrating more success this month.
The Academy Swim Team’s Lewis Hay, pictured below, has been taking part in the five-day Scottish National Age Group Championships.
A spokeswoman says: “On the first day, Lewis took 2.74 seconds off his 100m backstroke personal best and made the 14 year-olds final. He took a further .04 seconds off and maintained his final place of 6th. In the same session he also improved his 50m butterfly time by 1.15 seconds and was second reserve for that final.”
“The following two days saw him take 1.24 seconds from his 50m breaststroke personal best and equal his 50m free personal best. Having had Saturday off, he clocked yet another massive personal best of 2.94 seconds in the 100m freestyle and only two events later achieved his fifth PB in the 50 backstroke, shaving 0.77 seconds off his time and making first reserve for the final.”
During his time in Scotland, he was supported by Holly Hudghton in her first experience as a coach rather than as a swimmer at a national meet.
Academy Swim Team Head Coach, Sara Dykes, says she was really impressed with Lewis’s ability to deal with the pressure of attending his first ever National meet.
“This is part of the process in being able to swim well at this level of meet and Lewis took it in his stride. I am also pleased at how well Holly adapted to the role of coach.”
Secretary Jan Dykes added that this shows how well the Academy Swim Team is doing since it came back to competition after Covid 19 shut all pools. She said: “We had a really good County Championships, then on the 9th and 10th April we sent a team of 27 swimmers to the Yeovil Open Meet, where everyone swam really well, and we came away with the Best Visiting Club Trophy.”
“Looking forward to the next three weekends, we have seven swimmers – including Lewis Hay and Lewis Duggan – in the South west regional Summer Championships. Other swimmers are Zach Powell, Xander Powell, Riley Beardsmore, Tali Hughes and Phoebe Poole.”
In among these three weekends is the fourth of the series of Cotswold League Galas which will be held at Burnham Pool. “We are hoping to continue with our brilliant success so far, where we have won all of the previous three galas. This leaves us in second place overall with the opportunity of making the A-final gala, something we have not done before.”
