24 Jun 2019

A large Eastleigh team travelled to Waterlooville over the weekend to compete in the annual Swim Out Of Your Skin Open Meet.

Swim Out Of Your Skin is a knockout tournament in which 8 swimmers compete in a series of 50m sprints, with each sprint starting exactly 3 minutes after the previous sprint, a challenge of speed, stamina and tactics. The last place finisher in each round drops out until the final five compete for the Swim Out Of Your Skin title. The stroke for each round is drawn from a hat just before the sprint starts. There were two age categories: 13/under and 14/over, and Eastleigh did well to be represented in both age categories in both the boys' and girls' events. There was much excitement in the arena and deafening support as the teams roared on their competitors.

In the boys' 13/under category, Fraser and Nathan qualified to compete. Fraser dominated the tournament, winning all five rounds (2 x breaststroke, 2 x butterfly and 1 x backstroke) to take home the trophy. The final backstroke race was very close and Fraser showed great stamina and determination to touch first. Nathan swam excellently to reach the final round and take 4th place against older competitors.

In the girls' 13/under category, Ellena swam powerfully to qualify through 3 x freestyle and 1 x breaststroke sprints to reach the final race, touching in second place in the butterfly sprint to take home the runner up prize.

In the boys' 14/over category, Mukund and George represented Eastleigh. The sprints were 3 x freestyle, 1 x breaststroke and 1 x backstroke and George finished just in front of Mukund to take third prize, with Mukund taking fourth.

In a strong girls' 14/over category, Emily P. and Victoria Bu. both qualified for the event. Both swam aggressively and Emily was unfortunate to be touched out in the third round, but Victoria continued to the final sprint and finished in second place to take the runner up prize.

The rest of the meet followed the usual format of individual races and Eastleigh swimmers performed excellently to take home many medals and set a lot of great new PBs, including two new Club Records.

The Meet's Best Individual Swim Award for girls aged 13 and under was won by Emily L. for her Club Record breaking and gold medal winning 50m butterfly time of 32.50. Emily took 0.01 seconds off the Club Record recently set by Evie. It's great to see so many quality butterfly swimmers in the club at the moment - we've had 15 girls under 34 seconds in the past year and club records set in both short and long course competitions. 

In the girls' 10 yrs age group, Alana set a new Club Record in the girls' 400m freestyle, knocking 5 seconds off Saffron Shepherd's long standing record to win gold in 5:30.84, a 20 second PB!

There were great swims and new PBs from many swimmers, and also great attitude and determination from those swimmers who finished just outside their PBs. Among the most impressive swims were Zoey and Pippa smashing their 200m IM PBs, Emily P swimming sub-30 on her 50m freestyle for the first time, Isaac taking over a second off his 200m freestyle PB, Rosie and Ffion dipping under their 50m freestyle PBs again, Maisie breaking her recently-set 100m freestyle PB, Mali setting PBs in all of her freestyle events and Olivia smashing her 200m freestyle PB.

The full list of medal winners was:

• Alana - gold 400m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 200m backstroke, 100m backstroke, silver 50m breaststroke (10yrs)
• Amy - gold 100m butterfly, silver 50m butterfly (14yrs)
• Ella - gold 100m breaststroke, bronze 200m freestyle (9yrs)
• Ellena - gold 400m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke, silver 200m IM, 50m butterfly (13yrs)
• Elliot - gold 100m breaststroke, bronze 50m freestyle (9yrs)
• Emily L. - gold 50m butterfly, 100m freestyle, bronze 400m freestyle (13yrs)
• Emily P. - gold 50m breaststroke, silver 400m freestyle, 100m freestyle, bronze 200m freestyle (15+ yrs)
• Fraser - gold 200m IM, bronze 400m freestyle (13yrs)
• Freya L. - gold 100m IM (11yrs)
• Freya M. - silver 200m backstroke (14yrs)
• George - gold 50m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 100m butterfly, silver 200m IM, 50m butterfly (15+ yrs)
• Isla - bronze 100m backstroke (11yrs)
• Jessica I. - silver 100m freestyle (10yrs)
• Jodie - gold 400m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke (15+ yrs)
• Keir - gold 200m freestyle, bronze 50m breaststroke (9yrs)
• Lolah - silver 50m backstroke (10yrs)
• Matthew - gold 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 50m backstroke, bronze 50m breaststroke (10yrs)
• Mukund - gold 100m breaststroke, 50m breaststroke, 100m IM, silver 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke (15+ yrs)
• Nathan - gold 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly, silver 400m freestyle, 200m IM, 50m butterfly, 100m freestyle, bronze 50m freestyle (12yrs)
• Ollie - gold 100m freestyle, silver 50m butterfly, bronze 50m breaststroke, 100m backstroke, 50m backstroke (11yrs)
• Phoebe - gold 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, silver 100m breaststroke (11yrs)
• Ruby - gold 50m butterfly (10yrs)
• Sophie - silver 400m IM, 100m breaststroke, bronze 50m butterfly, 200m breaststroke (15+ yrs)
• Verity - silver 400m freestyle, 200m backstroke (13yrs)
• Victoria Br. - silver 200m backstroke, bronze 50m backstroke (15+ yrs)
• Victoria Bu. - gold 200m IM, 100m backstroke, silver 200m freestyle  (15+ yrs)

Full meet results can be found on the Swim Results website.

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