County records are not easy things to come by, the standards are high and in Sussex include records set by ex GB and Olympic swimmers.
Recently one of our very own swimmers has been on County record breaking form. At the Guildford City open meet Sophie Shaw broke another two under 16 County records in the 50m and 100m backstroke. Both records were already her own, in fact she has now broken 11 county records in total on backstroke (short course and long course) over the past 14 months.
Sophie is still only 14 years old and her latest record in the 100m backstroke was only 3 100ths of a second off the open all time county 100m backstroke record!
When asked to describe how she felt about her achievements and her swimming Sophie had this to say “I am really pleased with my progress this year and proud to have broken the county records on backstroke. The hard work is paying off. My next goal is to compete at the British Summer Championships in July as well as trying to qualify for the British Championship in April next year”.
Sophie’s coach Stephen Murphy explained “Sophie’s success is due to a lot of hard work in the pool training 7+ times a week for over 2 and half years. We have been focussing on the little things (technical and skills) to help her achieve her goals and it is paying off. Sophie is a great competitor and has the mindset and work ethic to progress a lot further.”
Sophie will now look to the regional and national summer championships to further build on her success from 2016 where she won a bronze medal at the English nationals in Sheffield in the 50m backstroke.
We wish her the best of luck with her swimming…
