Phenom Whittle Gears Up For European Jrs With East Midland Wins

East Midland Regional Championships – Gala 2

• Monday, May 6th
• Ponds Forge, Sheffield
• Results

Regional Summer Championships are happening across Great Britain, with one of the East Midland Regional Championships galas having taken place on Monday, May 6th in Sheffield. One of the teens to watch at the one-day affair was Derventio Excel’s Jacob Whittle, the 14-year-old ace who wowed the swimming community both at home and abroad at this year’s British National Swimming Championships.

At those Championships in Glasgow, Whittle, who turns 15 in September, threw down the swims of his life in the men’s 50m and 100m freestyle events. He logged efforts of 23.63 and 50.37 in each, breaking his own British Age Records, while also becoming the world’s fastest 14-year-old 100m freestyler ever. For his efforts, Whittle was named to Great Britain’s European Junior Championships squad, so we may yet see even more time drops from this young man before the year is through.

In the meantime, Whittle produced some solid performances at the East Midland Regional Championships last week, taking golds across the 50m breast, 50m free and 50m fly, while also medaling in the 50k back and as a member of Derventio’s 4x200m freestyle relay team. Whittle’s efforts included 30.58 in the 50m breast, 23.80 in the 50m free, 26.95 in the 50m fly and 27.97 in the 50m back.

His 200m free split was logged as 1:53.78. In the 200m free individual event at the British Championships Whittle hit 1:53.03 in prelims and dropped that mark to 1:52.36 to finish 5th in the Junior Final.