Hector Stakes Record Claim at 2009 Titans 800m Championships
Hector Pardoe, aged 8, won the much coveted Ellesmere College Titans Age Graded 800m Freestyle Challenge last Saturday 20th June in a new 9/u boys club record time of 12:36.26.
Despite only having just turned 8 years old, and therefore not permitted to enter the official ASA national rankings - his time was the second fastest short course time recorded by a 9/u boy anywhere in the UK over the last 12 months and the fastest in the West Midlands. This time would have placed him 9th out of 18 swimmers in the 11/u boys at this years County Championships and was only 6 seconds off next years County 12/u qualifying time. Unfortunately Hector will still be too young next year to enter the Counties but when he does he’s sure going to make some waves!
As part of the Ellesmere College Titans impressive coaching set up, Hector spent several weeks at Easter last year training at one of the top US training facilities - the Race Club in Florida – where he swam alongside 5 times Olympic Gold Medallist Gary Hall Jnr and Nathan Adrian - the Gold medallist and former world record holder in the 100m freestyle at the World Championships held in Manchester last year. More recently Hector has been receiving tips for his future success from British Olympic swimmer Darren Mew who coaches at the club.
Commenting upon Hectors swim Darren Mew said “I think it highly unlikely that even Grant Hackett the current 800m world record holder would have been swimming faster than this when he was 8. Its going to be amazing watching him develop over the next few years”
After the swim Hector exclaimed “I kept thinking that I was swimming next to Gary Hall, Nathan Adrian and Darren Mew and all I could think about was beating them and winning the Shield”.
Commenting upon Hector’s swim his Dad and head coach of the Titans said “From start to finish this was just an excellent swim. Everyone who was poolside was aghast at Hector’s ability to maintain the pace.”
In addition to Hector’s remarkable success other competing Titan swimmers notched up a total of 10 Personal Best (PB) times and 2 Club Records.
Amongst a summit of excellence – two other particular performances stood out
Annie Jones reduced her previous Personal Best by more than 30 seconds to record a new 14/u Girls club record time of 10:12.01. This would have given her 4th place at the 2009 County Championships - knocking on the door of medal contention. Annie has recently upped her training and this performance is the just reward for a lot of hard work in training.
In the same heat Hannah Greene recorded a PB of 10:15.76 – a time which would have won her the gold medal at this years County Championships and the overall best 12/u girls award – if she could have only been bothered to enter it. Rest assured – even if it’s kicking and screaming - she’ll be swimming it next year!
The other swimmers who secured PBs were Ottilie Fairhurst (13:21.61), Natalie Greene (14:01.26), Thomas Holland (14:23.73), Ryen Spencer-Wolfe (12:29.45), Sam Holland (12:34.54), Jimmy Kershaw (10:58.78) and Annie Mellings (11:17.54).
Well done to everybody who took part.