Northern Area Zonal Championship (50m)
Ponds Forge, Sheffield
Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th January 2013

A small number of National swimmers competed in the Northern Area Zonal Championship at Ponds Forge Sheffield and obtained some amazing results including 4 National times and 4 British Championship times which take place in March.

On day one of the meet competing for their first time at this elite meet were 13 year olds Yasmin Brown and Shannon McGahey, both having to compete in the 14 and under age group and battling against some very tough competition. This did not deter them and first up was Yasmin Brown in the 50m freestyle heat in which she posted a personal best with a time of 28.92 which qualified her in 10th place for the final but not only that she obtained her very first British Championship time. Yasmin then went onto improve her placing and finished 8th in the final. Next up was Shannon McGahey in the 200m butterfly in which posted a personal best time 2.27.93 obtaining her first National time of the season and also qualified 3rd for the final. The next event for Shannon was the 400m freestyle which she obtained a 8 second improvement on her personal best and qualified in 3rd place for the final, Shannon was also competing against team mate Jace Cappleman age 14 in this event and Jace also qualified for the final in 6th place. Both girls battled it out in the final and both improved their times Shannon took another 3 seconds of her heat time finishing in 4.34.15 which she obtained silver medal and Jace took 4 seconds of her heat time finishing in 4.34.30 obtaining bronze medal. Shannon also achieved another National qualifying time in this event and also got her very first British Championship time.

Another team mate Dervla Curran age 15 competing in the 15 years and over group obtained her National qualifying time in the 200m butterfly posting an amazing 7 seconds personal best time of 2.22.83, just missing out on the final by one hundredth of a second. In the same age group Leah Altoft age 17 made in into the 100m breaststroke final qualifying 9th and in the final improved her time finishing in 8th place.

The following morning saw Jace Cappleman compete in the 200m freestyle in which she qualified 5th for the final and finished in 7th place. Next up was Yasmin Brown in the 100m backstroke posting a personal best time of 1.13.16. Leah Altoft also competed in this and qualified for the final in 9th place and finished with a 7th place in the final. Jace Cappleman was then up against her team mate again Shannon McGahey in the 100m butterfly, Shannon went on to post another personal best time of 1.10.80.

The girls were coming to the final events and tiredness was not a problem for them as in the 100m freestyle event Yasmin Brown obtained a personal best knocking 3 seconds off recording a time of 1.01.89 qualifying 3rd for the final and also obtained her very first National qualifying time in this event. Jace Cappleman also earned a place in the final going in 6th place. Jace finished 7th and Yasmin 9th again a very close contest between the girls.

The final event of the meet was the 800m freestyle which saw Shannon McGahey finish in 2nd place with a new personal best time of 9.28.97 which was a 6 second improvement. Shannon also achieved her 2nd National qualifying time of the weekend and also her 2nd British Championship qualifying time which automatically earned her 1500m time as well. Competing in the older age group of 15 years and over was Dervla Curran who finished in 4th place.