Crawley Town Lifesaving Club star Williams breaks European record

Crawley Town Life Saving Club have ended the year with a flurry of good results.
Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's Zara Williams SUS-171219-110920002Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's Zara Williams SUS-171219-110920002
Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's Zara Williams SUS-171219-110920002

On the international scene current World Champions Zara Williams travelled to Germany to compete in the 2017 German Cup with the GBR team.

This championship is generally regarded to be the World’s number one outside that of the actual World Championships and so attracts national teams from all of the major competitive lifesaving nations such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Japan.

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In the heats of the ladies 50m manikin carry race, Wiliams lowered her own European record to 39.91 seconds before going on to comfortably win the final in the afternoon, 1.4 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.

Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's  Richard Jagger being presented with the Cadbury Trophy by RLSS CEO Di Steer. SUS-171219-110945002Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's  Richard Jagger being presented with the Cadbury Trophy by RLSS CEO Di Steer. SUS-171219-110945002
Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's Richard Jagger being presented with the Cadbury Trophy by RLSS CEO Di Steer. SUS-171219-110945002

The following day she also picked up the ladies 100m rescue medley title in a time just outside her British record.

The weekend after the German Cup, five Crawley boys; Martin Schofield, Joe Woollard, Sam Murray, Elliot Keys and Jack Field travelled to Eindhoven with the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) UK Performance squad to compete in the Orange Cup which again attached a large number of International teams.

In the Senior Men’s line throw Schofield and Woollard broke their own youth (U19) World record established at Rescue 2016 which incidentally was the same pool when achieving a time 9.99 seconds, only to witness it being broken again by a South African pairing.

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However this time was good enough to win them bronze medals in the senior event.

Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's Georgia Blenkley, Jade Hand, Brooke Mickel and Frankie Phillips SUS-171219-111000002Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's Georgia Blenkley, Jade Hand, Brooke Mickel and Frankie Phillips SUS-171219-111000002
Crawley Town Lifesaving Club's Georgia Blenkley, Jade Hand, Brooke Mickel and Frankie Phillips SUS-171219-111000002

Schfield and Woollard teamed up British record holding team-mates Murray and Keys to compete in the senior relay events where their highest finish was 11th in the obstacle relay an event the four still hold the 15-17 British record.

While in the UK at the National Life Saving Finals held in the John Charles Olympic Pool in Leeds, Crawley Town’s Richard Jagger, who took yet another gold for Team GBR at this year’s European was presented with the Dorothy Cadbury Trophy which is awarded to a competitor who has excelled in Lifesaving Sport over a number of years and continues to be a good ambassador for both the sport and charity.

On the same day the Crawley SERC team of Holy Willing, Luke Peel, David Butler and Gary Lee lost their national SERC title which they have held for the last two years and had to settle for third just one point behind Scotland after failing to rescue a drowning boy, one of many victims forming part of the two minute Simulated Emergency Rescue Test (SERC).

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In addition Trudie Peel and Gary help the South East Region to retain its Master Lifesaving title when they competed in their respective 50-59 age groups.

Finally back in Sussex the pairing of Jade Hand and Brooke Mickel won the Ladies Senior Pairs Sussex Life Saving title at the St Bedes School 25m pool and were pushed all the way by Crawley Town’s send pairing of Frankie Philips and Georgia Blenkley.

This is the first time Crawley Town have taken the top two places in these championships contested by ladies pairs throughout the county and all four Crawley Town competitors are still only youths.

All of the above achievements were undertaken on a self-funding basis.

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So if you would like to become part of this successful club you can find further information on the Crawley Town Life Saving Club (CTLSC) and its activities by visiting www.crawleytownlsc.com

Anyone getting involved is most welcome to come along to the club’s Tuesday evening session at K2 Sports Centre from 9-10pm.

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