RTSC Gala Reports

6th/7th December - Guildford City SC Open Meet

Romford Romp Away with Top Visiting Club Award

Romford Town Swimming Club followed their successful County Championships with another outstanding weekend display to romp away with the Top Visiting Club Award at the Guildford Open Meet, at their Spectrum Leisure Centre Pool.

The event opened with the Boys 400 metres Freestyle and Romford racked up team points from the start as Sam Bishop and Luke Sheridan took gold and silver respectively, with Personal Bests, in the 11 years age group. The first of many fine swims by George Ellis in the 12 years age group secured him silver with a PB time of 4mins 55.68secs, only a stroke ahead of team mate Harry Coker whose PB time of 4mins 56.17secs gave him the bronze. Joseph Stamp was 3rd in the 13 years age group and Alfie Burr 2nd among the 14 years olds, both also with impressive PB times. James Davis and Tom Toolis rounded off the medals in this event with gold and silver in the 15 years category.

11 years old Victoria Christmas was also in impressive form and was the clear victor in her age group 400 metres IM with a time of 5mins 48.02secs.

In the Boys 100 metres IM Sam Bishop made it two wins from two swims as he dipped under the 1min 20secs barrier for the first time. Fortunes were reversed in the in the 12 years age group as Harry Coker took the verdict this time ahead of Ellis to take gold and silver. Tom Clark put the disappointment of a below par performance in the opening event behind him, with a PB and a silver medal in the IM.

Nicole Raymond was close to her best over 100 metres Freestyle finishing 2nd in the 15 years age group, as was Kira Fawke, who also took silver in the Open age group. Fawke later went on to add gold over 200 metres Freestyle.

10 years old Toby Mascall was just outside of the medals in the 200 metres Backstroke after a third PB from his opening three swims, while in the 11 years category Samuel Hollington continued to improve taking silver with a PB time of 2mins 53.23secs. George Ellis was again on song with a second win while William Harding took 3rd spot in the 12 years olds category. Town lead the way again when 13 years olds Sean Houlihan and Joseph Stamp made it another one-two, both with sizeable PB performances.

Winning displays continued in the 200 metres Breaststroke as Jessica Coles set the pace in the 16 years age group and Bethany Hall produced her best ever swim to snatch the 13 years title only a couple of seconds ahead of Romford’s silver medallist, Elena Sheridan. Coles and Hall later also snapped up the 100 metres titles.

11 years old Bishop kicked off the afternoon’s proceedings with a bronze in the 200 metres IM and there was a repeat of the mornings 100 metres result in the 12 years group as Coker again finished with gold and Ellis the silver. In the next age up, Houlihan made it gold number two, with another PB and Burr chopped more than four seconds off of his previous best to secure his second silver in his age group. 17 years old Daniel Stepton, swimming his first events of the day, kicked off with two wins when he broke the 60-second barrier in the 100 Butterfly for the first time and was also triumphant in the IM. Thomas Toolis sliced two seconds off his previous best in the same Butterfly event to take gold in the 15 years age group and Thomas Clark, Sean Houlihan and Harry Coker each won their respective age groups. Burr again added silver to his growing collection.

12 years old Brock Whiston, who has been out of the water all week through illness, did well to take 3rd place over 100 metres Breaststroke. Elena Sheridan and 18 years old Nicola Rees both added 1st places in their 50 metres Butterfly events.

Toby Mascall produced another lively performance over 200 metres Butterfly to secure his first medal, a silver. Houlihan and Burr also took silver and Coker and Stepton chalked up more golds in the same event.

10 years old Sophie Ward, who had already turned in some notable PB’s in her earlier swims set another to produce her first medal, a bronze over 200 metres IM. There were 2nd places for Christmas, Whiston and Coles and yet another gold for Hall in their respective age groups.

There were six more medals still to come for the Romford boys in their two remaining events of the first day. There were more wins for Ellis and Houlihan over 100 metres Backstroke and for Stepton in the 50 metres Freestyle. In the Backstroke, Stamp was 2nd and Harding and Toolis both finished 3rd. The last medals for the girls on day one came in the 100 metres Butterfly where Hall made it win number four. Christmas, Whiston and Coles all added silvers and 12 years old Rosie Webber secured herself a bronze.

The Romford swimmers started the Sunday morning as they had left off the previous evening, with wins in the two opening 400 metres events. James Davis, despite being a little under the weather, still had enough in the tank to hold his opponents off in the IM event. Sean Houlihan again lowered his best over 400 IM to notch up another NQT with 5mins 01.21secs and pocket another gold medal. Alfie Burr again added to his collection of silverware with another PB. Mascall, clearly rejuvenated after his night’s rest smashed his IM best, as did Sam Bishop as they both took 3rd places. Jake Harrison dipped under 5mins for the first time to also finish 3rd.

In the 400 metres Freestyle Sophie Ward was back in the medals with probably her best performance of the weekend. She finished 2nd with a time of 5mins 27.07secs, more than 40 seconds faster than last time out. Kira Fawke took her personal tally of golds to three from three Freestyle swims and Elena Sheridan also notched up another win with a 7 seconds improvement to her previous best. Harriette Davis picked up a silver and there were 3rd place bronze medals for Emma Aston and Victoria Christmas.

Stepton grabbed four more medals from his Sunday swims, the first of these came in the 200 metres Breaststroke. He later added the 100 metres Breaststroke and 200 metres Freestyle titles before wrapping up his events programme with a silver over 50 metres Butterfly. Houlihan comfortably won both of his Breaststroke swims and provided a thrilling race over 200 metres Freestyle to take silver with a PB time of 2min 09.24secs. Jake Harrison was soon over the disappointment of being pipped to the Gold in the 200 metres Breaststroke by winning over both the 100 and 50 metres distances. In the 12 years age group Coker also took the 100 metres crown. 15 year olds Toolis and Davis added to the Town team points tally with three Freestyle medals. Toolis was 2nd in both the 100 and 200 metres, while Davis finished in 3rd place in the 200.

Nicole Raymond followed up a 2nd place in the 100 metres IM with wins in the 50, 100 and 200 metres Backstroke events. She also managed a 3rd place over 50 metres Freestyle. There was a winning double in the 100 and 200 metres Backstroke events for Harriette Davis in the 13 years age group, though she was edged out into 3rd place in her 50 metres swim. Rachel Welsh was runner up in the Backstroke 50, in her 14 year age group. Elena Sheridan set a PB time of 2mins 37.55 secs for 3rd place over 200 metres Backstroke before finishing her weekend with a masterful display in her favoured 200 Butterfly event. Both Brock Whiston and Rosie Webber made good accounts of themselves to finish 2nd and 3rd among the 12 years olds. Bethany Hall added 2nd place in the 100 metres IM and was 3rd in the 100 metres Backstroke. Nicola Rees would surely have made it win number two but for couple of minor misjudgements in the 100 Metres IM. She had to settle for silver.

10 years old Bethany Moore helped herself to two medals, both bronze, in her remaining events, the 50 metres Freestyle and 200 metres Backstroke.

11 years olds Victoria Christmas, Sam Bishop and Luke Sheridan, already laden with medals collected another six between them. For Christmas it was all silver in each of her 100 and 200 metres Backstroke and 200 metres Butterfly swims. Bishop was 3rd and 2nd in his respective 100 and 200 metres Freestyle events and Sheridan was also 3rd in the 200 metres Freestyle.

There was only one more gold medal for Romford in the 12 years age group and that came from a strong 50 metres Butterfly swim by James Kidd. George Ellis completed a very productive weekend of racing by taking another silver in the 100 metres Freestyle before slicing more than 10 seconds off his previous best for 3rd place in the 200 metres event. William Harding recorded another PB for the bronze in the 200 metres Breaststroke.

What a haul of medals and well done to all!

With so many good results over the weekend I can only apologise if anybody has been missed.

Gary Rogers