SWIMMING: Putteridge trio impress yet again

In the 50m breaststroke, Lawrence Palmer held his nerve to claim a third National gold medal this year in a time of 26.83secs.

Jordan Batson swam a PB of 29.12 secs to finish 23rd out of 92 swimmers who qualified, while Brandon Nabarrao came 22nd.

Nabarro then finished 27th out of 57 qualifiers in the 200m IM, clocking 2.07.42mins, while the 100m IM event saw Palmer manage 58.43secs to make the B final, ending 17th out of 109 qualifiers, with Nabarro swimming 59.25secs.

In the 100m breaststroke, Palmer again made the final, to claim bronze, touching in on 59.69secs, while Nabarrao finished 36th in the heats with a time of 1.04.58mins.

Coach Lesley Batson said: “As a coach I did feel sorry for Lawrence, Brandon and Jordan as I had taken the decision not to taper them for the event.

“This was because Lawrence has the British Championships in Glasgow in April which are the Olympic Trials and Brandon is looking to achieve the qualifying times for the same event by March.

“These times are the hardest qualifying times in the competition calendar, which makes it difficult to compete well, but they did a great job.”

On Putteridge’s aims for 2016, Batson continued: “We can safely say now after all the major National competitions, Putteridge SC is the highest performing club in the county and ranked top five in the East Region.

“This weekend sees masters swimmers competing in the South East Region Masters Championship.

“Then we have our Mainstream competing in two weekends of the Beds ASA County Championships which we have our highest representation ever in the hope of an increased medal haul and Regional qualifying times.”