Romford Town Swimming Club
established 1900
RTSC Gala Reports
10th November 2007 - National Speedo League (Round 2) - University of Hertfordshire
Town Make Regional Final Again
Romford Town produced another strong team performance at the weekend to secure second place in the
second round of their Division 1 National Speedo League encounter. At The University of Hertfordshire’s
pool they finished behind the hosts, Hatfield. This gritty display guarantees Town’s place in next
month’s Regional Final at the University of East Anglia pool in Norwich.This is the second successive
year that Romford have swum themselves into the Region’s Grand Final.
From the opening relay exchanges, Town’s youngest swimmers provided the first win of the evening when
James Kidd, Harry Coker, George Ellis and Sam Bishop showed a clean pair of heels to all of their
opponents in the Boys 9-11 years Freestyle Relay event. This was the first of what turned out to be a
clean sweep of events for the Romford boys in this age group. Before adding the Medley Relay to their
list of triumphs, Coker notched up two individual wins over 50 metres butterfly and 50 metres
breaststroke. Ellis also took maximum points as he set a new personal best time of 36.93 over 50 metres
backstroke before Bishop snatched a fingernail victory in the 50 metres freestyle with 32.88secs, also
a personal best time.
Not to be outdone by the boys, 10 years old Brock Whiston powered through the field and with a strong
last 10 metres grabbed 1st place in the Girls 10-11 years 50 metres Breaststroke with a PB time of
42.49secs. Whiston, together with team mates Rosie Webber, Victoria Christmas and Sophie Thompson added
another six team points with 3rd place in their medley relay event.
Georgia Hunton-Clarke was also back to winning ways as she powered to victory in the Ladies Open 100
metres Backstroke. Having put in a tough weeks work in the training pool, there had already been a
clear indication that it had paid off as she came close to her best in the opening leg of the ladies
medley relay. Here she was followed by Roseanne Thompson, 12 years old Elena Sheridan and Kira Fawke
who were edged out to 2nd place in a close finish. Hunton Clarke, filling in for an ill team mate, had
more to smile about as she set a PB time of 1min 07.91secs in taking 3rd spot in the Open 100 metres
Butterfly. Despite a disrupted training programme, Thompson was not too far from her best as she
finished 3rd in the Open 100 metres breaststroke and Fawke followed suit with 3rd place in the open 100
metres event. Sheridan, who had a busy programme of events, did well to finish 3rd in her individual
event, the 13/U 100 meters butterfly swim.
Romford's only other victory, on another tough night of competition, came from 15 years old Jessica
Coles as she again broke 1min 20secs mark to take top points in the girls 15/U 100 metres Breaststroke.
This followed her earlier 2nd place in the girls 15/U 100 metres Butterfly event. The relay quartet of
Coles, Kelsey Richards, Elena Sheridan and Stevie Coker all fought hard to add another seven points to
the Town tally as they finished as runners up in their medley relay race.
The boys 15/U boys added further 2nd place finishes in each of the relay team events. On both occasions,
Tom Toolis, Jake Harrison, Chris Stamp and James Davis combined well to push Hatfield close. In his
individual event, Harrison lowered his personal best time to 1 min 12.94secs over 100 metres
breaststroke to secure another runner up spot while colleagues Toolis and Stamp came in 3rd in their
respective backstroke and butterfly events.
Recent newcomers to the Romford Town team, Jodie Momodu and Sean Houlihan, both made their mark in their
13/U years breaststroke events. Momodu, improving with each of her 3 outings for Town, came close to
winning her event, but like Houlihan had to settle for 2nd place. The boys 13/U relay teams comprising
of Houlihan Tom Clark, Tom Johnson and Alfie Burr turned in battling performances to take 3rd place in
both their medley and freestyle events.
Result:
- Hatfield 370
- Romford Town 270
- Bishops Stortford 228
- Wandsworth 228
- Royal Tonbridge Wells 221
- Enfield 208
- Sutton & Cheam 150
- Epping Forest 115