Romford Town Swimming Club
established 1900
RTSC Gala Reports
1st/2nd December 2007 - Guildford Open Meet
Another Terrific Weekend for Town
Following last week's successful weekend at the Essex County Senior Championships, Romford Town Swimming
Club had another terrific weekend of swimming at Guildford’s Open competition at Spectrum Leisure Centre
Pool.
14 years old James Davis, who set new personal best times only last weekend, raised the standard again
on 5 of his 6 main swims. He had warmed up a 5th place and a PB over his weakest event the 200 metres
backstroke, in which his team mate Tom Toolis took fine 3rd spot, before taking the first of his four
gold medals in the 200 metres IM. Davis was clearly up for the fight as he added his second gold over
100 metres butterfly with a PB time of 1min 06.03secs before adding victory and another PB in the 400
metres IM. A little disappointed with only the bronze medal in the 100 metres freestyle, he was spurred
on to round off a dazzling weekend of swimming with a win over 200 metres freestyle. Toolis, having
missed training all week through illness, went on to take his second bronze medal in the 100 metres
butterfly event.
In the 15 years age group there was a clean sweep of the three Butterfly events by Christopher Stamp.
His first triumph came in the 100 metres event where he set a blistering early pace and held on for a
PB time of 1min 02.57secs. A well paced 200 metres event enabled him to slice 3 seconds off of his
previous best time to finish with 2mins 23.36secs. Despite a small slip at the turn on the sprint 50
metres event, he was still able to maintain the power over the closing stages for his third win.
In a very strong 11years age group, Harry Coker still managed to come away with an assortment of seven
medals. Like Stamp, his best results came from the butterfly swims as he notched up wins on both the
100 and 200 metres distances. He was close to gold on three other occasions but had to be content with
silver from each of his 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 metres breaststroke swims. His two bronze medals came
from his 200 metres backstroke and 100 metres breaststroke events.
There were five PB’s and six medals from six events for 16 years old Jamie Harrington. He too had
improved on lifetime best performances from only last weekend and came close to gold in his opening 400
metres freestyle event, finishing 2nd. He followed this up with a bronze and his first PB of the meet
over 200 metres IM, before adding a second silver with a storming 50 metres freestyle. He hacked 12
seconds from his previous 400 metres IM time in securing his third silver medal before lowering his
PB marks over 100 and 200 metres freestyle, both bring him bronze.
There were 5 medals each for 14 years old Kelsey Richards and 18 years old Natalie Ward. Richards
again turned in strong performances and as expected her best results came from her main events. She
followed up a silver in the 400 metres IM event with a win and a PB time of 2mins 32.48secs over the
200 metres distance. Another PB over 100 metres butterfly was good enough for 3rd place and a swim
within a half second of her best over 400 metres freestyle gave her a second runner up medal. She
later added a second bronze medal in the 200 metres freestyle. Ward still out of sorts after illness
made significant improvements on last weeks swims as she took gold from her 50 metres butterfly and 200
IM swims. She added further medals to her collection as runner up in both the 100 metres butterfly and
400 metres IM. Her bronze medal came from her 200 metres freestyle swim.
There was a double gold success for Romford’s 12 years old National winner, Elena Sheridan, as she
dominated both of her butterfly events, setting new PB’s at both the 100 and 200 metres distances.
For good measure she chipped in with a silver medal from 200 metres IM swim. In the 13 years age group,
Louise Harrington pocketed a bronze medal for her 200 metres butterfly swim.
Another Town winner was Jake Harrison who took both the 50 and 200 metres breaststroke titles in the
boys 15 years old age group, again in PB times. His winning time of 2mins 37.21secs in the 200 metres
event was a full 3 seconds faster than his previous best and more than seven seconds quicker than only
a month earlier. Harrison would surely have made it a hat trick of breaststroke victories but missed
the signing in cut off time for the 100 metres event and consequently was unable to swim.
There were more golden breaststroke performances from 12 years old Bethany Hall. An impressive
performance over 100 metres was surpassed in the 200 metres event where she seized her victory with
a time of 2mins 56.01secs.
There were also breaststroke medals for Jodie Momodu in the girls 13 years age group with yet more PB
times. 37.68secs secured her the 50 metres crown and a new personal low time of 1min21.00secs over the
100 metres was good enough for silver. She added her second piece of silverware as runner up in the
200 metres event.
Only competing on the Saturday, 16 years old Roseanne Thompson picked up the first of her two medals, a
silver with a strong swim over 100 metres breaststroke. This was closely followed by gold from a gritty
swim in the 200 metres IM.
In the girls 15 years category Jessica Coles was squeezed out into 3rd place in closely fought 100
metres breaststroke event. She nevertheless returned fired up the following morning to snatch the
200 metres crown with a time of 2mins 46.21secs.
In showing a return to form in the 200 IM event the previous week, 16 years old Grant Chandler was near
to his best again this time over 200 metres freestyle where a time of 2mins 00.93 gave him 2nd place
and another much needed confidence boost.
11 years old James Kidd showed his strong fighting spirit as he held off a late challenge to grab a well
deserved bronze medal in the 400 metres IM. He showed that he can also compete at the shorter distances
with another 3rd place over 50 metres butterfly. Two other Romford swimmers came away with two bronze
medals a piece and these were 14 years old Sian Aston from her 100 and 200 metres swims and 16 years old
Tom Ingram over 50 and 100 metres butterfly.
In his only swim of the weekend, 17 years old Chris Wright put in a battling performance to finish 2nd
in the open age group 400 metres freestyle. There were bronze medals for 12 years old Joseph Stamp and
13 years old Thomas Johnson, who were both unfortunate to have only the one medal each to show from a
fine weekend of swimming.
Well done everybody.