Sophie Feboul emulated her father, who picked up a speeding ticket on the way up to Sheffield, by speeding to success at the ASA National Age Group Championships held at Ponds Forge. She did herself and Clevedon proud on Monday 1st August by knocking almost 4 seconds off her PB in the 200m Freestyle event.

Sophie had set herself two targets for her first Nationals - to set a PB and to beat someone. She hit both of these in some style. She had qualified for the event by setting a time of 2.29.05 in the Western Counties Championships at Millfield School - hitting the National Qualifying Time exactly to one hundredth of a second. This time guaranteed that she would be the slowest entry into the Nationals and she lined up in the first heat for the start of her event in 59th position. 2 minutes 25.09 later Sophie finished and then had to wait to see the final results for the event. She finished 29th position beating 30 swimmers with faster entry times and only 4 seconds away from a slot in the Finals.

Sophie also broke her record for 100m freestyle on the first two lengths and won her heat by a large margin. She is now looking forward to going back to Sheffield next year and doing even better.

Graham Feboul