Asier Lopez showed his versatility and commitment to the town’s aquatic success by first helping Crawley Swimming Club achieve silver in the Men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay at K2, with a personal best time of just over 56 seconds for his own 100m leg. He then immediately travelled to Wales to break the Welsh 16-17 age group 200m Super Lifesaver record and take silver in the Men’s Open Line throw on the same day. The next day he broke a further two Welsh 16-17 age group records in the 100m Manikin Tow with fins and 100m Rescue Medley. In addition, Asier also helped the Men’s relay team, comprising Martin Schofield, Ruben Lopez and Jack Sadberry, win a nail-biting final gold in the “Blue Ribbon” 4 x 50m Rescue Medley.
Crawley Town’s current Open GBR representative, Jack Sadberry, confirmed his status as the British number one fin swimmer by winning both the 100m Manikin Carry with fins and 100m Manikin Tow with fins in new Welsh record times (which was not surprising as he currently holds both British records). Jack, who is currently attending Swansea University and is a member of the nationally renowned Swansea competitive swimming squad, also won a bronze in the Men’s 200m Super Lifesaver.
In addition to his Medley relay gold, Jack, with the support of Ruben, Alex Jackson and Jacob Goodall, helped Crawley Town win silver in the 4 x 25m Manikin relay, and again with Ruben, plus two Crawley Town ladies, Amaia Lopez and Emily Goodwin, win bronze in the mixed Lifesaver relay.
With Jack’s support as subject, current unofficial World Line throw recordholder, Martin, released another “lightning bolt” sub 9 second throw to take gold in the Men’s Line throw. Martin is currently the only person in the UK able to record a time below 9 seconds.
Ruben Lopez (unrelated to Asier) was representing Crawley Town for the first time and supported Asier in the Line throw as subject, as well as joining three open relay teams. Ruben, who has represented Spain, is also a fins specialist winning two bronze medals in the Men’s 100m fin events.
Asier’s older sister, Amaia, who for the past three years has travelled the globe representing GBR at Youth (U19) level moved into the senior age group and so needed to make a point. There was no doubt that she did this, winning both the Ladies’ 50m Manikin Carry and 100m Medley Rescue, events for which she held the Youth British record.
Her England teammate, Emily Goodwin, along with two ladies competing for Crawley Town for the first time, Emily Kent (Open) and Indigo Liang (15-17), just lost out on a medal in both the 4 x 25m Manikin Carry and 4 x 100m Medley relays. Emily’s sister, Anabel, very kindly agreed to stand-in for a sick Emily, in Crawley’s B team’s mixed Lifesaver relay, in which they finished in a points scoring 10th place.
Crawley Town’s top performing Master was, once again, Donna Wickens, who picked up three golds, one in the 50m Manikin Carry and one in the 100m Medley Rescue, both of which she currently holds the British record, and as Vanessa Eagland’s subject in the 12.5m Line throw.
In addition to the Line throw, Vanessa also won gold in the 100m Manikin Tow with fins and silver when finishing behind Donna in the 50m Manikin Carry.
In a younger Masters age group, Marsha Bayliss established a new Welsh record in the 45-49 age group 50m Manikin Carry. Sadly, the three Masters could not defend their relay titles, as fourth member, Jennifer Amos, was forced to pull-out sick at the last moment.
The next major championships is the RLSS SPEED Championships at the end of March at the pool built for the 2022 Commonwealth Championships, Sandwell Aquatics Centre near Birmingham. This will be the final English trial for this year’s Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships taking place from the 10th to 13th July in Swansea.
If you want to be part of the Crawley Town team, you are welcome to join us on a Tuesday evening at K2 between 8.00 to 10.00pm.