<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <title>Romford Town Swimming Club</title> <style type="text/css"> body{ color: #0000ff; margin:0; padding:0; } h2 { margin-top: 10px; } h3 { margin-top: 15x; margin-bottom: 5px; } #maincontainer{ width: 840px; /*Width of main container*/ margin: 0 auto; /*Center container on page*/ } #topsection{ background-color: #ffcc33; height: 92px; /*Height of top section*/ text-align: center; } #topsection h1{ font: bold 50px Trebuchet MS; margin: 0; text-align: center; padding-top: 3px; } #topsection h3{ margin: 0; text-align: right; margin-right: 110px } #contentwrapper{ float: left; width: 100%; } #contentcolumn{ margin-top: 25px; margin-left: 200px; /*Set left margin to LeftColumnWidth*/ text-align: left; } #leftcolumn{ float: left; width: 200px; /*Width of left column*/ margin-left: -840px; /*Set left margin to -(MainContainerWidth)*/ xxxbackground: #ffcc33; } #subpagecontent{ font: 15px helvetica; color: #0000ff; margin-top: 5px; margin-left: 25px; text-align: left; } #comment{ clear: both; width: 100%; font: italic 15px helvetica; color: red; margin-left: 10px; text-align: left; padding: 4px 0; } #footer{ clear: both; width: 100%; color: black; margin-left: 0px; text-align: left; xpadding: 4px 0; } .innertube{ margin: 10px; /*Margins for inner DIV inside each column (to provide padding)*/ margin-top: 0; } /*Credits: Dynamic Drive CSS Library */ /*URL: http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/ */ .indentmenu{ font: 13px Arial; width: 840px; xxxwidth: 100%; /*leave this value as is in most cases*/ } .indentmenu ul{ margin: 0; padding: 0; float: left; width: auto; /*width of menu*/ border: 1px solid black; border-width: 1px 0; background: blue url(../images/button_color_gold_1.gif) center center repeat-x; } .indentmenu ul li{ display: inline; } .indentmenu ul li a{ float: left; text-align: center; color: yellow; /*text color*/ padding: 7px 11px; xwidth: 88px; text-decoration: none; border-right: 1px solid black; /*divider between menu items*/ border-left: 1px solid black; } .indentmenu ul li a:visited{ color: white; } .indentmenu ul li a:hover, .indentmenu ul li .current{ color: white !important; /*text color of selected and active item*/ padding-top: 8px; /*shift text down 1px for selected and active item*/ padding-bottom: 6px; /*shift text down 1px for selected and active item*/ background: blue url(../images/button_color_gold_5.gif) center center repeat-x; } </style> </head> <body> <div id="maincontainer"> <div id="topsection"> <img src="../images/logo.jpg" alt="RTSC Logo" align = "right" /> <h1>Romford Town Swimming Club</h1> <h3><em>established 1900</em></h3> </div> <div class="indentmenu"> <ul> <li><a href="../index.htm">Home</a></li> <li><a href="../learn to swim.html">Learn to Swim</a></li> <li><a href="../squads.html">Squads</a></li> <li><a href="../masters.html">Masters</a></li> <li><a href="../fixture list.html">Club Calendar</a></li> <li><a href="../achievements.html">About RTSC</a></li> <li><a href="../locations.html">Where We Swim</a></li> <li><a href="../contacts.html">Contacts</a></li> <li><a href="../links.html">Links</a></li> <li><a href="mailto:romfordtownsc@aol.com">Email</a></li> </ul> <br style="clear: left" /> </div> <br /> <div id="contentwrapper"> <div id="subpagecontent"> <h1>RTSC Gala Reports</h1> <h3><font color="#000000"><em>29th July to 2nd August - ASA National Youth Championships - Ponds Forge, Sheffield</font></em></h3> <p> Romford Town swimming Club had five swimmers qualify to this year's National Youth Championships though, due to study and examinations, two decided not to compete at this year's event. The three swimmers that represented Town did themselves and their club proud and their results were overall the best seen from an Essex club. </p> <p> <strong>Day One, Tuesday</strong>. The early start of 6.45 am warm up and 8.00 am start for the first event the 400 metres IM made it difficult for many to improve on their previous best performance times. First up for Romford in this event was 14 years old Kelsey Richards who was competing at the Youth level for the first time, in a joint age group that also included the 15 years old qualifiers. She started strong and whilst she was just outside of her best time, fared better than a number of others her age, improving her programme place to finish in the top 20 among the 14 year olds. </p> <p> 15 years old James Davis qualifying to the Nationals for the first time was also in the bottom half of the boys 15/16 years joint age group. Determined to put in a good performance, he too came close to his best over 400 metres Freestyle and the time of 4mins 23.78 improved his programme placing. </p> <p> In the same 400 metres Freestyle event 16 years old Daniel Stepton got his race schedule up and running, all be it at a distance further than he is usually accustomed of competing at. His time of 4mins 14 .96secs was the first of eight PBs over the four days, and moved him up 10 places in the rankings. Stepton was in action again shortly after in the 100 meters Backstroke where another PB in a time of 1min 01.76secs took him through to the evening semi-final. Another PB of 1min 01.67secs there saw him finish 14th overall and gave him a top ten place among those age 16 years. </p> <p> Kelsey Richards who had four tough distance events in just three days was back in the water within a couple of hours, for the second of these, the 1500 metres freestyle. Another gritty performance was good enough to take her into the top fifteen in her age and she retained her UK top 20 ranking. </p> <p><strong>Day Two, Wednesday</strong>. Although Richards was first in again on Day 2, the slightly later start time clearly suited her. After a very strong start she became a little hesitant around the race mid-point though maintained her composure to press on for a lifetime best time of 4mins 37.33secs, just a couple of seconds outside of a top 10 place. </p> <p> There was disappointment for Daniel Stepton in his 100 metres freestyle swim. Despite finishing less than 0.1secs short of his best, he knew that a stronger turn and more positive finish would have made a great difference to his result here. This disappointment followed him into his 200 metres IM event, which followed in quick succession, and again whilst only just outside of his best ever, could have been that much better. </p> <p>James Davis, who had set his season's target of getting 'close to a National Qualifying Time' had to be thrilled with a 10th place finish among the 15 years old boys with a 1500 metres freestyle time of 17mins 01.27secs. </p> <p><strong>Day Three, Thursday</strong>. Determined to exorcise the disappointment of the previous day Stepton set out in the 200 Backstroke heats with a purpose, reaching the half way turn just outside of his 100 metres PB set on day 1. A strong second half too brought him home for a 3 seconds PB and a time of 2mins 11.81secs, which sneaked him into the evening final. An even better evening swim saw him lower this time further to 2mins 10.46secs to take 8th place (the 6th fastest 16 years old). </p> <p> There was no let up for Kelsey Richards who was in again just after mid-day for her fourth event, the 800 metres freestyle. Another solid swim here brought her to within a couple of strokes of her best with a time of 9mins 34.75secs and again maintained her programme ranking in the top 25. This swim rounded off an excellent year's swimming for Richards. </p> <p> <strong>Day Four, Friday</strong>. This was a busy day for Daniel Stepton who made it PB number six in his opening 200 metres freestyle event with a time of 1min 58.78secs. Again, only a tired last turn saw him finish as a reserve semi-finalist only 0.4 off the pace. He did however make amends, as later that morning his PB time of 25.13secs for the sprint 50 metres freestyle gave him that semi-final berth. </p> <p> In the boys 800 freestyle, James Davis showed that there was no lack of determination, though a little inexperience saw him force a fast early pace which took its toll in the latter stages of the race. Nevertheless he finished with another strong swim and the satisfaction of a good first National Championships. </p> <p> Unaccustomed to distance events at this level, having qualified for the 800 metres for the first time, Stepton held his race together well and still had enough in the tank for a strong finish and a PB time number eight, of 8mins 54.48secs. Another fast swim in the evening 50 metres Freestyle semi-final was just outside of his earlier PB and was a grand finale to Romford Town's National Youth Championships. </p> <em>Gary Rogers<em> </div> <div id="footer"> <hr /> Last Updated: 11-Aug-2008<br /> Webmaster: Alan Ward<br /> &#169 2008 RTSC </div> </body> </html>