RTSC Gala Reports

Saturday 5th/Sunday 6th December - Guildford City SC Open Meet - Spectrum Leisure Centre

This weekend saw the annual outing to the City of Guildford's Open age group meet in preparation for the forthcoming Essex Age Group Championships due in the New Year.

With a full programme of events (all bar the 800 & 1500 distance races), whilst being a tough weekend of competition this meet proves a great opportunity for those still trying to gain County times and for others to benchmark where they are in the season.

Both Saturday and Sunday mornings saw early starts for Town swimmers competing in the 400 metres Freestyle and Individual Medley events but this didn’t deter them as reflected in some super swims.

11 year olds Kieran Gore and Callum Connelly started their busy schedule of events on Saturday morning with the 400Ffreestyle in which Callum came 4th and Kieran, just returning from some time out of the water with the flu, a gutsy 5th.

In amongst their busy weekend of events the pair were up early again on Sunday morning for the 400 metres Medley in which Callum produced a big personal best time to take a very good 1st place with Kieran still battling hard to take 3rd.

The 11-year-old girls were well represented too in the 400 metres disciplines as Sophie Ward commenced her hectic schedule of events with a good 2nd place finish in the 400 metres medley on Saturday morning and followed this up Sunday morning with another impressive personal best time as she came 2nd in the 400 metres Freestyle.

12-year-old Victoria Christmas had two great 400 metre swims also as she gained big personal best times and took silver medals in the Medley and Freestyle events.

There were terrific swims and personal best times too for Rosie Webber who gained 5th spot in the girls 13 years 400 metres Freestyle, whilst 12 year old Sam Bishop showed he is returning to form as he came 4th in his 400 Freestyle event. 17-year-old Sam Whitehead gained a good bronze medal in his 400-metre Freestyle.

Ten year olds Hannah Binning and Victoria Bishop competed well in their first 400 metres Freestyle with Hannah coming 6th.

With the 400 metre events out of the way this left the rest of the two days competition for swimmers to battle it out over their other disciplines which for many proved a successful time.

The Butterfly events saw Romford picking up an array of medals. 13-year-old Rosie Webber took 1st place in a new personal best time in the 200 metres Butterfly, whilst Sophie Ward gained 2nd spot in the 11 years 200 Butterfly. The pair was at it again in the shorter 100 metres Butterfly events as they both picked up 3rd places. Hannah Coles picked up 4th spot in the 14 years 200 metres Butterfly.

In the boys 200 metres Butterfly, 11 year old Callum Connelly swam to another good personal best time as he took the silver medal, whilst Kieran Gore grabbed 1st place in the 100 metres event.16-year-old David Ward was 2nd in his 100 metres Butterfly event and 3rd in the 50 metres fly.

There was also top six placings in the 50 metres Butterfly as 11 year olds Bethany Moore was 5th and Sophie Ward 6th,whilst ten-year-old Mitchell Wilson was 4th. 11 years old Bethany Moore continued to showed promise as she picked up several medals over a range of events. In the 200 metres Medley she was 2nd and repeated this in the 200 metres Freestyle with team-mate Sophie Ward 6th. In the 100 metres Freestyle Bethany was 3rd and she took 5th spot in the shorter 50 metres event.

Boosted by her strong displays in the 400 metre events, Victoria Christmas continued to swim well picking up 4th spot in the 50, 100, 200 Freestyles and 200 metres Backstroke. She went one better in the 100 metres Backstroke picking up 3rd spot. Rosie Webber gained 5th spot in the 13 years 200 metres Backstroke.

The Breaststroke events proved successful for Town swimmers too with 11-year-old Kieran Gore picking up silver and bronze in the 100 and 200 metre events. Callum Connelly was 5th in the 11 years 200 Breaststroke.

Ten-year-old Aiden Jackson did well as he took 3rd spot in the 50 metres Breaststroke and had a very good swim in the 200 metres event where he finished in 6th place. Oliver Applebee gained 5th spot in the 13 years 200 metres Breaststroke, whilst David Ward took a bronze medal in the 16 years 100 metres Breaststroke.

For the girls, 11-year-old Jodi Whitehead in her favourite stroke swam to three 4th place finishes in the 50, 100 and 200 metres Breaststroke events.

In the boy’s 200 metres Individual Medley there were two bronze medals achieved as 11 year old Callum Connelly swam well to take 3rd place whilst Sam Bishop grabbed 3rd place also in the 12 years age group. Andrew Ward was 5th in the 17 years 200 “IM” whilst in the 100 metres Medley event Callum was 5th whilst 15 year old Tom Clark was 4th.

Callum Connelly and Kieran Gore were 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 11 years 200 metres Backstroke with Callum coming 4th in the 100 metres event also. The 200 metres Freestyle saw the two 11 year olds battling it out again as Callum came 5th and Kieran 6th. Sam Bishop swam well to gain 5th in the 12 years category but went one better in the 50 metres where he gained 4th spot.

In the competitive ten year age group there was some other good top six placings as Hannah Binning gained 4th spot in the 50 Freestyle and 6th in the 50 Backstroke. Zac Coleman swam a big personal best time to gain 5th place in the 200 metres Freestyle.

Well done to everyone that competed and a special thank you must go to the new coaching duo of Shaun Gore and Colin Hollington who at the very last minute answered the call of duty and stood in for me on Saturday doing a super job.