RTSC Gala Reports

10th/11th April - Waltham Forest Secondary Essex Age Group Development Meet

This annual swim meet is held for swimmers that haven’t achieved Essex County qualifying times and acts as a great introduction to competitive swimming for those just starting out on their swimming careers and provides the opportunity for others to push on towards gaining county times next season.

With Town's swimmers having just recently completed their best County Championships performance for some years, the emerging talent on show throughout the weekend indicated a very bright future for Romford.

Georgia Milton led the way in the 9 year old girls category with 5 gold medal wins. The pick of the bunch was a sub-3 minute swim in the 200m Freestyle where teammate Rebecca Cribb picked up a good silver medal on her club debut. Georgia was also a winner in the 100m Individual Medley where Rebecca took the bronze. Georgia added gold medals in the 50m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke and 50m Freestyle. Georgia added to her medal tally with silver in the 50m Backstroke, but had to settle for bronze in the 200m Backstroke as a fine swim from Rebecca beat her to the silver.

In the 9 year old boys Jacob Smith did well to pick up gold medals in the 200m Backstroke and 50m Freestyle and a bronze medal in the 50m Breaststroke.

Town were well represented in the girls 10 years age group where they achieved a 1-2-3 in 400 metres Freestyle with Hannah Binning winning gold, Anna Manning silver and Erin Corney bronze. Erin won gold at both 50m and 200m in her favoured Backstroke events with Victoria Bishop close behind in second place in the 200m event. Katie Trott was our fourth gold medallist in this age band with an impressive swim in the 50m Breaststroke. The 200m Freestyle brought silver for Hannah and bronze for Erin who also picked up silver medals in the 50m Freestyle and 200m Individual Medley. Katie added to the impressive medal count with silver in the 100m Individual Medley and bronzes in the 200m Individual Medley and 50m Butterfly.

The boys were also in outstanding form in this age group and a remarkable 1-2-3-4 came in the 200m Freestyle event with Ben Davis 1st, Robert Benson 2nd, Liam Fearon 3rd and Luke Harris just outside the medals in fourth place. Ben had earlier demonstrated his improved technique with a very good 2nd place in the 400m Freestyle. Town's growing depth of talent in this age group was again evident as Alex Drury claimed silver medals in the 50m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke and 50m Breaststroke. Liam had to settle for bronze just behind Alex in the 50m Breaststroke and also claimed 3rd place in the 200m event. Robert Benson was rewarded with his second silver medal for a fine 200m Backstroke swim.

The 11 year old girls weren't to be outdone and Sarah Foley, Amy Marren and Stephanie Tomlinson all went home clutching gold medals. Sarah's first place came from a strong 400m Individual Medley. Amy won the 200m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke and Stephanie won the 200m Individual Medley and 100m Freestyle. Amy added three silver medals to her collection from the 100m Freestyle, 400 metres Freestyle and 100m Backstroke. Stephanie also picked up a silver medal in the 100m Butterfly and 3rd place medals in the 400 metres Freestyle, 200m Backstroke and 100m Backstroke. A further three swimmers were amongst the medals in this age group with Yasmin Morris 2nd in the 50m Freestyle, Maddie Webber 2nd in the 50m Breaststroke and Hannah Dearman-Tur 3rd in the 200m Breaststroke.

Only three 11 year old Romford boys competed over the weekend, but they still managed to take all of the medals in the 200m Freestyle where Jonathan Toolis won the gold in front of Tommy Beardsell and Oliver Coles. Jonathan claimed 5 gold medals in all, with further wins in the 200m Individual Medley, 200m Breaststroke, 200m Backstroke and 100m Individual Medley. Tommy further demonstrated his potential by winning silver medals in the 50m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke, 50m Backstroke and 200m Backstroke and also adding bronzes in the 400m Freestyle and 100m Medley to his tally. Oliver Coles also picked up a 200m Individual Medley silver medal.

12 year olds Amy Harris and Jodi Whitehead won their share of gold medals. Amy winning the 400m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle and 400m Individual Medley and Jodi winning 200m Backstroke, 100m Backstroke and 100m Individual Medley. Jodi also picked up a silver medal in the 100m Freestyle and Lileigh Argent won a good bronze medal in the 200m Breatstroke.

There was a 1-2-3 for Sam Hollington, William Manning and Sam Allsop in a close fought Boys 12 years 400m Freestyle with the places being reversed in an equally close 200m Individual Medley. It was William's turn to pick up gold in the 400m Individual Medley and Sam Bishop joined in the golden glut by winning the 200m Butterfly. William also picked up second place medals in the 100m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle. Sam Hollington was 2nd in the 100m Backstroke with William 3rd. Sam Hollington took the bronze in the 200m Freestyle as did Sam Allsop in the 50m Freestyle.

It was good to see our 13 year old girls winning medals too as Anne-Marie Smith was 2nd in the 50m Breaststroke and 3rd in the 100m Breaststroke and 200m Backstroke. Emma Aston was 3rd in the 200m Individual Medley.

14-year-olds Shara Islam and Charlotte Chuck also jumped on Town's medal bandwagon with Shara winning a golden Breaststroke double in the 50m and 100m. Teammate Charlotte did the honours in the 200m event. Charlotte also did well to win silver at 400m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly and a bronze in the 200m Individual Medley. Shara was also a bronze medallist in the 100m Freestyle.

Tom Benson continues to improve with every gala and took the 14-year-old boys age group apart with wins in the 50m, 100m and 200m Freestyle and in the 50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke. Tom's seventh and final gold came in the 100m Individual Medley with silver coming from the 400m Individual Medley and bronze from the 400m Freestyle.

Vanessa Sutton was also picking up medals in the 15 year old girls category with a win in the 400m Freestyle, 2nd in 200m Individual Medley, 3rd in 100m Individual Medley

15 year old Conor Toolis, who like Tom Benson, has been assisting with the coaching of Town's junior squads, was also keen to show what he can do in the pool. His apprentices would have been impressed with his four gold medals in the 400m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 200m Individual Medley and 100m Individual Medley. Conor's fifth medal of the weekend was a bronze in the 100m Individual Medley.

Gina Dickson's efforts were rewarded with gold medals in 50m and 200m Backstroke and 50m Breaststroke, and silver medals in the 50m and 200m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly in the 16 years and over age group.

Andrew Ward and David Ward (no relation!) are another two Town swimmers providing valuable help to the juniors and they too were out to impress in the Boys 16 and over category. David pipped Andrew for the gold in the 50m Butterfly, but Andrew gained revenge as they swapped places in the 50m Breaststroke. Andrew's second gold came in the 50m Freestyle where David took the bronze. David won silver in the 200m Individual Medley and 100m Butterfly. Andrew was second in the 100m Freestyle and in the 100m Breaststroke where David won a second bronze medal. Andrew saved his best for the final swim of the weekend as a stylish performance saw him come take the lead on the breaststroke leg to win the 100m Individual Medley gold.

Well done to all those that played their part in an exceptional weekend for Romford Town. Let's all keep up the good work and see what else we can achieve!