<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <title>Romford Town Swimming Club</title> <style type="text/css"> body{ color: #0000ff; margin:0; padding:0; } h2 { margin-top: 10px; } h3 { margin-top: 15x; margin-bottom: 5px; } #maincontainer{ width: 840px; /*Width of main container*/ margin: 0 auto; /*Center container on page*/ } #topsection{ background-color: #ffcc33; height: 92px; /*Height of top section*/ text-align: center; } #topsection h1{ font: bold 50px Trebuchet MS; margin: 0; text-align: center; padding-top: 3px; } #topsection h3{ margin: 0; text-align: right; margin-right: 110px } #contentwrapper{ float: left; width: 100%; } #contentcolumn{ margin-top: 25px; margin-left: 200px; /*Set left margin to LeftColumnWidth*/ text-align: left; } #leftcolumn{ float: left; width: 200px; /*Width of left column*/ margin-left: -840px; /*Set left margin to -(MainContainerWidth)*/ xxxbackground: #ffcc33; } #subpagecontent{ font: 15px helvetica; color: #0000ff; margin-top: 5px; margin-left: 25px; text-align: left; } #comment{ clear: both; width: 100%; font: italic 15px helvetica; color: red; margin-left: 10px; text-align: left; padding: 4px 0; } #footer{ clear: both; width: 100%; color: black; margin-left: 0px; text-align: left; xpadding: 4px 0; } .innertube{ margin: 10px; /*Margins for inner DIV inside each column (to provide padding)*/ margin-top: 0; } /*Credits: Dynamic Drive CSS Library */ /*URL: http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/ */ .indentmenu{ font: 13px Arial; width: 840px; xxxwidth: 100%; /*leave this value as is in most cases*/ } .indentmenu ul{ margin: 0; padding: 0; float: left; width: auto; /*width of menu*/ border: 1px solid black; border-width: 1px 0; background: blue url(../images/button_color_gold_1.gif) center center repeat-x; } .indentmenu ul li{ display: inline; } .indentmenu ul li a{ float: left; text-align: center; color: yellow; /*text color*/ padding: 7px 11px; xwidth: 88px; text-decoration: none; border-right: 1px solid black; /*divider between menu items*/ border-left: 1px solid black; } .indentmenu ul li a:visited{ color: white; } .indentmenu ul li a:hover, .indentmenu ul li .current{ color: white !important; /*text color of selected and active item*/ padding-top: 8px; /*shift text down 1px for selected and active item*/ padding-bottom: 6px; /*shift text down 1px for selected and active item*/ background: blue url(../images/button_color_gold_5.gif) center center repeat-x; } </style> </head> <body> <div id="maincontainer"> <div id="topsection"> <img src="../images/logo.jpg" alt="RTSC Logo" align = "right" /> <h1>Romford Town Swimming Club</h1> <h3><em>established 1900</em></h3> </div> <div class="indentmenu"> <ul> <li><a href="../index.htm">Home</a></li> <li><a href="../learn to swim.html">Learn to Swim</a></li> <li><a href="../squads.html">Squads</a></li> <li><a href="../masters.html">Masters</a></li> <li><a href="../fixture list.html">Club Calendar</a></li> <li><a href="../achievements.html">About RTSC</a></li> <li><a href="../locations.html">Where We Swim</a></li> <li><a href="../contacts.html">Contacts</a></li> <li><a href="../links.html">Links</a></li> <li><a href="mailto:romfordtownsc@aol.com">Email</a></li> </ul> <br style="clear: left" /> </div> <br /> <div id="contentwrapper"> <div id="subpagecontent"> <h1>RTSC Gala Reports</h1> <h2><font color="#000000"><em>19th/20th April - Crawley Spring Long Course Open Meet at the K2</font></em></h2> <h3>Town Tough it Out</h3> <p>Romford Town swimmers pushed on with the latest round of this season's Long Course competition programme with another tough meet at Crawley's K2 Sports Centre. Such was the popularity of this event, that most of Southern England's top teams were looking to race here and it was three times oversubscribed with many swimmers disappointed to have their entry turned down. The Romford contingent was further depleted after a week of sickness amongst the team. There were nevertheless some sparkling performances for this stage of the season which, for many, followed a week of tougher training. </p> <p>16 years old Daniel Stepton set himself another gruelling eight event schedule from which he took a top ten place in every swim in the 16 years and over category. Despite little sprint preparation so far, he was still close to his best times in his opening 100 & 50 metres Backstroke races, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively among the 16 year olds. He was the 2nd fastest in the 16 years old and over 50 metres Butterfly and 3rd in both the 200 metres Backstroke and 50m metres Freestyle. Other quality performances came from his 100 and 400 metres Freestyle and 200 metres IM events. </p> <p>Sean Houlihan also had some outstanding swims in the Boys 12/13 years age group, finishing as one of the top three 12 year olds in each of his four events. After a strong opening 400 metres IM, in which he took the race out a little too fast when setting a PB mark on the opening 100 metres Butterfly leg , he still managed to finish 3rd, only a second outside of his best. As the fastest 12 years old in the 100 metres Breaststroke he lowered his personal best for the third time in a row in setting a new mark of 1min 19.32secs. He followed this with another PB over the 200 metres IM with an improved National Qualifying Time of 2mins 32.39secs. In his 200 metres Breaststroke event he produced a mature performance, setting a strong early pace that saw him win comfortably from on outside lane. His time of 2mins 51.30secs was less than one second away from his best and would surely have been even quicker had he been pressed. </p> <p>14 years old Kelsey Richards was also at her best as she started off her weekend programme as the 3rd fastest 14 years old over 400 metres Freestyle. She followed this up with a personal Long Course best of 2mins 33.90secs over 200 metres IM, some 6 seconds faster than last time out. She opened on the second day with another solid swim over 400 metres IM which clearly set her up for another PB time of 2mins 29.29secs over 200metres Butterfly. Richards saved her best for last to finish 5th overall in the joint 14/15 years girls (2nd fastest 14 year old) 800 metres Freestyle. This gave her a third NQT of this campaign with a time of 9mins 32.74secs, a nine seconds improvement since the turn of the year. 15 years old Thomas Toolis also had a good swim over 800 metres Freestyle, taking another four seconds off his previous PB time, set at Stockport only last weekend. </p> <p>12 years old Elena Sheridan had another strong weekend of competition. She started by turning the 12 years old rankings on their head to take 4th spot over 200 metres IM. Whilst she was a little outside of her best times over 100 & 200 metres Butterfly she was still quick enough to secure her place as the 2nd fastest of her age, in both events. Between these swims she clocked a time of 5mins 30.81secs over 400 metres IM which was again inside the National Qualifying Standard. A time of 3mins 01.00secs over 200 metres Breaststroke also saw her leapfrog a number of others in her age group to finish 4th. </p> <p>Christopher Stamp, who was on the 'sick list' for much of the week soon found that this would take its toll on his schedule. A strong 50 metres Butterfly was full of promise and his time of 28.32 saw him finish as the fastest 15 year old. He was later disappointed to have to withdraw from the 100 metres Butterfly event. Brother Joseph Stamp had another good swim over 200 metres Backstroke taking the 4th fastest 12 years old place with a time of 2mins 37.81secs, shaving another 2 seconds off his previous best set at Sheffield only three weeks earlier. </p> <p>James Davis turned in another strong set of results though was unable to replicate the times achieved at Ponds Forge, last time. This was not altogether surprising as this time round his race schedule included the 1500 metres Freestyle where his time of 17mins 17.56secs saw him finish as 3rd fastest 15 year old just three seconds short of his second NQT.</p> <p>Having loosened up with a couple of PBs over 50 metres Freestyle and 50 metres Breaststroke, 15 years old Jake Harrison saved his best for last. A gritty swim over 200 metres Breaststroke gave him 3rd in the Boys 14/15 age group in a time of 2mins 38.71secs, smashing his previous best and like Davis left him only three seconds away from National Qualification. 15 years old Jessica Coles did well to finish 3rd fastest in her age over 200 metres Breaststroke swim. </p> <p>Town's youngest swimmer, 11 years old Brock Whiston, again produced some gutsy swims and she recorded her first of two PBs in her medley events over the 200 metres distance. Her second PB propelled her up the rankings to 5th place as her time of 5mins 55.17secs smashed her previous best by more than 13 seconds. </p> <p>16 years old Grant Chandler matched the Butterfly times he set last time out in Sheffield and these gave him two top 5 finishes among the 16 year olds. He also added a strong 200 IM swim to his weekend's achievements. Harry Coker, on his return from a family holiday, did well to finish as 4th fastest 12 years old with a time of 2mins 42.13secs over 200 metres Butterfly.</p> <em>Gary Rogers<em> </div> <div id="footer"> <hr /> Last Updated: 22-April-2008<br /> Webmaster: Alan Ward<br /> &#169 2008 RTSC </div> </body> </html>