24th April
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Shell pupil Jay Olenicz was recently named top age group swimmer at the Bournemouth Dolphins Level Two Open Meet which involved hundreds of swimmers from across the country.
Jay won the best male age group award, based on Bagcat points (where points are awarded according to age and recorded time). His results, which included a winning 28.41 sec in the 13yrs 50m backstroke, make him the fastest British 13 year old of all time and only the second to go under 29 seconds. He also won the 13yrs 200m backstoke by 12 seconds in 2:12.45 and the 200m individual medley (2:21.31) and took silver in the 200m freestyle (2:06.78).
Jay said “I have been training hard and achieved the time in one of my sessions recently so I was hoping I could match it on the day. It was a great feeling to achieve that.” He has been swimming for as long as he can remember, and started competitive swimming from nine years old. He spends a gruelling two hours in the pool from 5am – 7am nearly every morning, before heading off for a full school day at Canford. A tiring schedule but Jay wouldn’t change it, “I absolutely love swimming and hope to take this as far as I can. My ambition is to improve over the next few years and be ready to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games”.
In the short term, Jay has many more competitions to prepare for including one this week, the National Speedo League, in which some of the country’s top swimming clubs compete against each other.
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