TWO girls from Southwold Swimming Club in Yate competed at the National ASA Winter Meet 2015 at Pont Forge Sheffield last week.

Jessica Shaw and Maria Jones, both 16, represented their club at the highest UK amateur sports level on December 17 and 18, the reinstated National Winter Meet.

Competition was going to be the toughest the girls could meet in the UK, but Shaw qualified for the 50-metre breaststroke and joined Jones in the 100m individual melody (IM).

Shaw was up first last Thursday in the 50m breaststroke and came seventh in the fastest heat, while Jones made her IM debut in the National Championships the next day and finished 62nd out of the 97-strong field.

Next it was Shaw’s turn and again she found herself in the fastest heat ten.

Shaw improved upon her first 50m race, taking nearly 0.5 seconds off her entry time setting a new county record, but faced with a three-way swim off for a place in a final as both Rebecca Wilde (18) from Taunton Dean and Leah Picillo (18) from Mount Kelly had also quite incredibly all set exactly the same time 64.80s.

Come the three-way swim-off the strength of the older girls showed early on as they opened up a three-metre gap in the fly and backstroke lengths, but Shaw pulled this back in the penultimate breaststroke length with all girls turning together, before being overpowered again in the final freestyle length. It was a great experience and rare to see a swim off.