Leo Woodrow competes at the Wales National Championships

Following straight on from a successful Somerset County Championships there was no let up for Academy Burnham Swimmer Leo Woodrow (12) who headed to Swansea for 4 days to compete at his first Wales National Championships from the 22nd to the 25th of March. This was 12 months in the making for Leo as he also qualified for the Welsh Nationals in 2023 before mechanical failures at the national pool in Swansea prevented last year’s edition from going ahead.

Starting on Friday with back to back events Leo made the final of the 200M Free after being promoted from first reserve, but instead chose to withdraw to focus on the final of the 50M Breaststroke that followed straight after where he went on to finish in 6th place, completing a good first day for him.

On Saturday morning Leo started strongly with a PB in the 100M Free heats that saw him qualify for the final, followed by a good 50M Backstroke heat that also saw him make the final of that event. In the finals Leo went on to finish 6th in the 100M Free and 8th in the 50M Back.

Having looped in with the City of Bristol squad at the meet Leo was joined on Sunday by club coach Nic Hazelton who saw Leo deliver a couple of very fast 50M Freestyle sprints, firstly in the heats with a new PB under 30 seconds of 29.53, and then again in the final where a second new PB of 29.39 saw Leo finish just outside the medals in 5th place.

On Monday Leo was racing in the 200M Back where he was able to comfortably qualify for a 6th final where he went on to smash his PB for the event. With just a few tenths of a second separating 2nd to 4th, Leo just missed out on the top 3 to complete a great few days of competing for him. Head Coach Sara Flinton said “Some very good racing by Leo over the weekend with 2 sub-30 second PB’s in the 50M Free and some great swimming in the 200M Back where he finished 4th, we are super proud of you.”