Hector Smashes British Records

At last weekend’s Liverpool open  meet, Hector Pardoe  smashed the all time 9/u British 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle long course records.

 Hector broke the British record in the 200m backstroke by 1.91 seconds recording a time of 2:47.07. In the 400m freestyle he took 2.99 seconds off the previous record finishing in 5:01.10.

Incredibly Hector’s time in the 400m freestyle would have won him the gold medals at all Olympics up to and including 1928 – beating Johnny Weissmuller’s (aka Tarzan USA) 1924 Olympic winning time of 5:04.20 and U.A Zorrilla’s (Argentina) winning time of 5:01.60 from the 1928 Olympics.

Johhny Weismuller is regarded as one of the greatest swimmers of all time. Between 1924 and 1928 he remained unbeaten in official competition, winning a total of 5 Olympic gold medals and was widely regarded as the world’s greatest swimmer for a generation. Weissmuller later became a Hollywood legend playing the part of Tarzan during the late 20s and early 30s.

Ellesmere College Titans Head Coach Jon Pardoe said “it’s an absolutely remarkable achievement. What is really interesting is the factors at play that have allowed a 9 year old to beat the times recorded by the best open men swimmers of just two to three generations ago. Scale of thinking, diet and training have clearly all played their part”.

Hector puts his success down to his Vegetarian (near Vegan) diet and his love of chocolate soya milk. Commenting after the races Hector said: “I’m over the moon. I actually thought I was going too slowly. If I can beat that man Tarzan – Phelps better watch out”.

Other Titan swimmers in action included Michael Doyle, Luke Parker, Kate Haworth, Alfie Pardoe, Elliot Hughes, Luc Jarzynski, Elinor Haworth, Llawen Rossell-Smith, Poppy Evans, Eden Moseley, Ellie Russell, Beatrice Roberts, Lucy Rowland, Naomi Craig, Sunetra Chaterjee and Tom Lloyd. Between them they notched up 10 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals; whilst recording 25 PBs and breaking 4 Club Records.

In addition to Hector’s haul of 6 gold and 1 bronze, Michael Doyle, age 10, won 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal in the boys 10/u age category. Luke Parker won the gold medal in the 200m backstroke;  Llawen Rossell-Smith won the gold medal in the girls 14/u 200m breaststroke, whilst Poppy Evans took the silver in the open.