No doubting about Thomas
Alice Thomas (16) of Newark Swimming Club reached the finals of both the 100m and 200m breaststroke at the National Youth Championships at Ponds Forge at Sheffield.
She achieved third place in the 100m final in 1min 14.28 secs and sixth place in the 200m final in 2-40.81.
Although her ambition is to represent Britain at the 2012 London Olympics, she is realistic about her chances of competing at international level.
“It is every swimmer’s goal to represent your country,” said Thomas (pictured). “At the moment my target is to keep on swimming, and maybe when I have done my A-levels I’ll take a year out to just do swimming.”
The Grove School pupil is taking A-levels in chemistry, biology, maths and statistics, geography and textiles after her successful GCSE results.
She combined exam revision with training five times a week at The Grove Leisure Centre and in Mansfield.
Alice said that Rebecca Adlington’s performance in Beijing, where her two gold medals made her the most successful British swimmer at an Olympic games for a century, had made her feel patriotic.
“It is going to be a lot of work if I want to swim internationally,” she said.
However, Thomas said she would probably go to university rather than follow a sporting career.
“My main priority is my studies,” she said. “Sometimes you have really good days, and sometimes really awful.”
Two Newark Swimming Club members continuing their early season form in open water swimming, with Chloe Palmer and Jamie Scott both successful at the East Region Championships at Whittington Lake in Norfolk.
Scott was seventh place in the 13-16-years 3K race in a time of 43mins 53secs, and also finished fifth in the 2.5K race at Wykeham Lakes, Scarborough, in 32-46.
He is now focusing on further open water swims, including his first sea swim, as well as looking ahead to next year’s National Youth Championships in the pool.
Palmer continued her excellent form in the 800m race at Whittington Lake with a time of 12-25 to take seventh place in the 13-14-years age-group.
Two of Newark’s masters swimmers, Giles Thomas (14-09) and John Palmer (14-54) took first and second respectively in the men’s 800m.
