Sudbury Storms 'Last Chance County Qualifier Open Meet attracted nearly 300 competitors from 15 teams across Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex to two days of competition at the Kingfisher Leisure Centre.

Sudbury Storms'Last Chance County Qualifier Open Meet attracted nearly 300 competitors from 15 teams across Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex to two days of competition at the Kingfisher Leisure Centre.

The gala is the last chance for swimmers to attain county qualifying times. The Suffolk County championships will be held at Ipswich Crown pools over three weekends in March.

Storms' swimmers had a great weekend, breaking a staggering 144 personal best times, 47 of which were new county qualifying times. These came from; Francesca Clark, Francesca King, Jessica Dilling, Gemma Rides, Cara Hetherington, Emma Main, Sophie Heaton, Ella Rides, Florence Grubb, Kate Hann, Harry Milsom, Mollie Milsom, Sam Clark, Abigail Vowles, Hannah McNaul, Seb Pettican, Thomas Williams and Olivia Sherred.

The club also saw three members of the team achieve East Region Championships Qualifying times: Thomas Williams, 24, and Ella Rides, 13, in the 200m Breaststroke and Storms' youngest qualifier Emily Dowding, 11, in the 400m Freestyle.

Club records also tumbled during the two days of competition, with Mollie Milsom smashing the 12-year-old 50m Butterfly record in 34.51. Ella Rides, while qualifying for the East region championships also took a club record in the 14-year-old 200m Breaststroke in 2:59.01. Thomas Williams, who's been in great form all season continued his record breaking season with a club record in the 200m Breaststroke in 2:32.80.

Following a last-minute time trail hosted by the club a few days before the closing date for the championships, Storms added a further three swimmers to the County Championships squad. Chris Greenhalgh, Nathan Alexander and Kelly Thake all had outstanding swims, each achieving the qualifying standard. The Storms squad will now consist of 52 swimmers, which is 16 more than last year.

Sudbury Storms' head coach Paul Cook said: “It's going to be an intensive couple of months for our swimmers, with some hard work in the pool before the championships in March. We have had a fantastic year so far and this is evident from the 52 swimmers we will be taking to the 2010 County Championships.”

Storms' has Development, Club, County, Regional and Masters squads training at the Kingfisher Leisure Centre Wednesday through Friday and Sunday - further details can be found on www.sudburyswimming.org.uk

Picture courtesy of DE Photo