RTSC Gala Reports

Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd May - London Youth Championships - National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace

With the Romford Town swimmers not breaking from their tough training schedule, many of the Youth team picked out a selective programme of swims at this weekend’s London Youth Championships at Crystal Palace’s, National Sports Centre. Some used the event as preparation for the Rotherham licenced level one meet at Sheffield in two weeks, though for all it was valuable long course practice.

The Youth Championship incorporated events for disabled swimmers and it gave another opportunity to 11 years old Amy Marren to show what an emerging talent she is. She secured her's and Romford’s first gold of the weekend over 400 metres Freestyle coming close to the time she set only 2 weeks earlier at the British International Disabled Championships.

14 years old Elena Sheridan, competing in the joint 14/15 years age group, had a cautious start to her competition programme. Fearing a flare up of her recent shoulder injury she withdrew from the 100 metres butterfly final, opting to swim only the 200 metres Breaststroke, where she did well to snatch silver. Team mate Bethany Hall was 6th.

Daniel Stepton found it tough in the open age group finishing 4th in the 200 metres Backstroke.

Marren set a PB over 200 metres IM to take her second gold and Elena Sheridan notched up her second silver with a much more assured swim in same event.

17 years old Nicole Raymond took on her first 1500 metres freestyle swim for some time and whilst she began to feel the strain in the closing stages she had done enough to take the victory in the girls 16 years+ category.

Directly after, Raymond teamed up with Sheridan, Hall and Harriette Davis to finish 6th in the Girls 14-17 years 4 X 100 metres Medley Relay.

With confidence returning, Sheridan got back to winning ways and was close to her best over 200 metres Butterfly with an emphatic win in a time of 2mins 22.09secs. Almost immediately, she was back under her marks for the 50 metres Butterfly final. This proved to be one of the most exciting swims of the weekend where only 0.05secs separated the first two. Whilst Sheridan missed out on another win she lowered the Essex County Junior Record to 29.43secs.

Bethaney Hall finished strongly in her 100 metres Breaststroke final to add to Town's medal tally with a well deserved bronze.

Stepton, a little below par was again 4th, this time over 100 metres Backstroke and followed it with a respectable 6th place in the 50 metres Freestyle. Nic Rees was also 4th with a strong swim in the girls open 50 metres Butterfly and was later unlucky to miss out on a medal again in the 50 metres Freestyle.

On Day Two, Sheridan was again the fastest 14 years old in the 400 metres IM but again had to concede the gold medal to an older rival, this time Hillingdon’s Karley Mann. With strong representation in this event, Bethaney Hall and Amy Beardwell-Lacey finished 5th and 6th respectively.

On a busy day for Amy Marren, she added four more medals to her collection, a silver and three gold. She was close to her best finishing 2nd over 50 metres Freestyle. Three PBs in each of her 100 and 200 metres Freestyle and 100 metres Backstroke brought her gold each time.

17 years old James Davis recovered after a shaky start over 400 metres Freestyle with a much more self-assured performance over the 800 metres distance. He opened a slender lead at half way and whilst he was pegged back a little in the closing stages, had enough left in the tank to put in a burst over the last 50 metres to take the title. Nicole Raymond secured her second distance medal of the weekend adding bronze over 800 metres to her 1500 metres gold.

17 years old Jake Harrison and 15 years old Rachel Welsh each added bronze medals in the closing stages for their respective 200 metres Breaststroke and 50 metres Backstroke swims.

Well done all.

Gary Rogers