Swim Wales Easter National Championships 2025

Holywell took a small team of swimmers to the Swim Wales National Championships, the event was held at the Welsh National pool in Swansea on April 24th to 27th 2025. The swimmers all performed amazingly well and were a credit to our club. Fantastic support from all our parents on the balcony, parents and swimmers cheering everyone on in every race made for a brilliant atmosphere.

The Team: Heidi Rogerson, Poppy Johnson, Elen McCoole-Jones, Reggie Park, Thomas Baldwin and Charlie de Haan.

Thomas Baldwin

• 4 Races, 2 Finals, 4 PBs
• Thomas had a great meet with PBs in all his events
• 200m Free 2:17.19,
• 800m Free 9:37.86 huge PB of 25.88 seconds and the fastest 14-year-old in the 14/15 year age group.
• 400m Free 4:45.93 with a 9.92 seconds PB, 3rd fastest in the 14 yrs olds.
• 1500m Free 18:26.02 with an incredible 49.68 seconds PB and the fastest 14-year-old in the 14/15 year age group.

Reggie Park

• 8 Races, 7 Finals, 7 PBs, 2 Golds, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze.
• 50 Brs gaining a small PB
• 200m Free 206.40 then swimming 205.45 in the Final winning Silver,
• 50 Fly another small PB of 29.49 got Reggie into the final, another PB in 29.06 coming 5th.
• 800m Free, another PB in 9:08.48 winning Gold (2025 Welsh National 800m Champion)
• 50m Free in 26.73 and another final, another PB in 26.52 coming 5th.
• 400m Free 4:32.03 was Reggie’s LC PB time, he swam 4:30.89 in the prelim and then won Silver in the final in 4:26.73
• 1500m free, a solid swim gave Reggie the Gold medal in 17:39.01 (2025 Welsh National 1500m Champion) He then had to go straight into the Final of the 100m Free. 100m Free, a PB in the Prelim and a PB in the Final gained Reggie a well-deserved Bronze Medal.

Heidi Rogerson (S10)

•  4 Races, 2 Multiclass finals, 5 PBs, 1 Silver medal and 2 Welsh records.
• 200m Backstroke, PB, 1st place in multiclass, a fantastic swim made Heidi a 2025 Welsh National 200m Backstroke Champion and Welsh record holder.
• 100m Back 4th place in multiclass an amazing swim by Heidi, her PB time was 1:25.34, in the prelim Heidi swam 1:23.75.
• 50m Free, 2nd place in multiclass in a time of 38.91 gave Heidi a Silver medal in her final.
• 50m Backstroke, 1st place in multiclass, Heidi’s PB time was 43.45 and she really gave it her all to finish with a medal in a time of 38.29. And another record (2025 Welsh National 50m Backstroke Champion)

Poppy Johnson

• 6 Races, 1 PB achieve the following.
• 50m Breaststroke 0.1 off her PB time
• 100m Free, a good swim but off her PB time
• 200m Breaststroke very solid swim 0.8 seconds from her PB time
• 100m Breaststroke great swim making finals in 5th place, unfortunately a very dubious DQ decision took Poppy out of the final.
• 800m Free, great swim from Poppy in her first long course 800m setting a respectable PB of 10:11.99
• 200m Free.

Elen McCoole-Jones

• 9 races and 7 PBs saw Elen achieve the following.
• 50m Backstroke 34.91- Off her time but still a good swim
• 100m Backstroke, A great 2 seconds PB in 1:14.87.
• 200m Backstroke 2:38.85 – another solid swim and a 2 seconds PB 
• 50m Free – 33.70
• 100m Free 1:07.51 a very impressive first 50m gave Elen a 1.67 PB
• 200m Free 2:24.09 one of Elen’s best swims over the weekend saw Elen knock off almost 5 seconds from her PB time of 2:29.52
• 50m Fly 34.91 technically very good, Elen’s Fly looks very promising
• 100m Fly 1:18.52 Elen’s first long course 100m fly sets her a great starting point for future swims in this event.
• 200m IM 2:47.58 another good swim and another good PB

Charlie de Haan

• Charlie was our youngest swimmer at the Welsh Easter Championships; however, you would not have thought so, swimming in the 12/13 age group and only just turned 12, Charlie showed great character at this meet.
• 6 Races, 3 Finals, 6 PBs, 1 Bronze Medal.
• 50 Back PB time 36.85, Prelim time 33.82 and Finals time 33.96
• 100m Back, PB time 1:17.09, Prelim time 1:14.02, Finals time 1:13.66
• 200m Backstroke and Charlie’s most impressive event, PB time 2:43.25, A great PB of 2:40.48 in prelims and a finals time of 2:35.95 winning Bronze
• 50m Free PB time 32.97, Prelim time 31.79
• 100m Free PB time 1:11.50, Prelim time of 1:10.27 and a PB of 1.23 seconds

Overall, a great meet for team Holywell from 6 swimmers a total of 14 Finals, 2 Golds – 2 Silver – 2 Bronze, 2 Welsh S10 Records and an impressive 30 PBs

Special thank you to Kerry Johnson and Emma Park for helping out in marshalling all week.