Led by their 16-year old Olympic Champion Ruta Meilutyte, of Lithuanian birth, the club from Plymouth Leander won the 2013 Arena National League title with 363 points, leading a tightly-bunched group that included Guildford in 2nd, Taunton Deane in 3rd, Sheffield in 4th. This meet is effectively the long course club team championship meet for the country, with a heavy focus on team results.
Leander’s Meilutyte didn’t actually swim the 100 breaststroke race at this meet, the event that she won Olympic gold in, but showing a renewed focus on the sprint freestyle races (which were once her declared specialty), she did take runner-up honors in the women’s open 100 with a 56.11. That put her behind only 21-year old Rebecca Turner from County of Sheffield, who won in 55.97.
In her absence, 17-year old Georgina Evans from Liverpool won in 1:10.24.
Other name winners include Rob Holderness from Millfield winning the men’s 100 breaststroke in 1:02.60, and 17-year old James Guy also from Millfield winning the men’s 200 IM in 2:03.61.
Even with that Arena League final going on, though, the swim that garnered the most buzz in the British swimming community was a 50 meter short course meters freestyle in Leicester at the 2013 City of Leicester Age Group meet. There, 15-year old Harriett Cooper swam a 25.78 to win the Open division (ahead of Northampton’s Zoe Gidden in 26.85). That breaks the British and English National 16 & under records in the event of 25.81 that were set in 2005 by Fran Halsall, the woman who is currently the top female sprinter in the country.
