RTSC Gala Reports

23rd November 2008 - Romford Town Swimming Club 1st Licensed Level 3 Meet - Southbury

What a really great meet!

Well done to everybody that helped organise this event and to those that helped make it such a successful day. On the day there were early concerns as a power failure delayed the start and a few computer gremlins that cropped up during the first couple of events were soon overcome.

There was success for many of the Romford swimmers and it was the youngsters that lead the way with Sophie Ward and Toby Mascall practically cleaning up in the 10 years age group. Ward took gold in no less than seven events while Mascall secured six wins and a 2nd from his day’s work. Ward took nearly 20 seconds off of her previous best to chalk up her first win over 200 metres Butterfly, before bagging the Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle events too. She also added the 50 metres Butterfly, Backstroke and Freestyle swims to her list of successes. 10 years old Jodi Whitehead had earlier worked hard to take the bronze medal in the 50 metres Freestyle but struck gold in the 50 metres Breaststroke with an emphatic win of her own, slicing 7 seconds off her previous best for a time of 44.21secs. Mascall also set PBs each time out as he wrapped up the 200 metres events in Backstroke, Freestyle, Breaststroke and Individual Medley. He had to settle for the silver in a closely contested 50 metres Freestyle race before restoring the status quo with victory in the 50 metres Butterfly. Team mate Sam Coker had chipped in with 3rd place in the 200 metres Backstroke and Connor Houlihan was 2nd in the 100 metres IM and 3rd in the 200 metres Freestyle.

There were some promising swims from Romford’s youngest competitors, with the pick of these coming from 9 years old Chloe Thompson who left her rivals in her wake, a clear 10 seconds behind in the 100 metres IM. She was 3rd in both the 50 metres Freestyle and Backstroke events. Also among the medals in this age group were Maddie Webber and Victoria Bishop. Webber was 3rd in both the 100 metres IM and the 200 metres Breaststroke and 2nd over 50 metres Breaststroke. Bishop was just behind, finishing 3rd in the Breaststroke swim and gained a medal, another bronze in 50 metres Butterfly. Mitchell Wilson swam a 5 seconds PB to take bronze in the boys 50 metres Breaststroke.

The 11 years olds fared well too as Sam Bishop, Luke Sheridan and Rosie Webber came away with fourteen medals between then, nine of them gold. From Bishop’s five events, he won over 200 metres Backstroke and on each of his 50 metres Freestyle, Butterfly and Breaststroke swims. He also finished 3rd in the 200 metres Butterfly. Sheridan also netted five medals, with his winning performances coming over 200 metres Freestyle and 200 metres Breaststroke. He collected silver medals from his 200 metres IM and 50 metres Freestyle swims and finished 3rd over 50 metres Butterfly. Webber notched up three wins and a second place for her four medals. Her first win in a PB time of 2mins 56.90secs was in her 200 metres Butterfly and this was closely followed by a strong winning swim in the 200 metres Freestyle. She added gold in the 50 metres Butterfly and was runner up in the 100 metres IM. Megan McAuliffe missed out on gold by only 0.11secs over 200 metres Breaststroke finishing 2nd and there were also medals for Sam Hollington and Sam Allsop who both came away with a bronze from their respective 200 metres Backstroke and Breaststroke events.

Moving up an age group, 12 years old George Ellis helped himself to six medals, two gold and four silver. He started well with a win in the 100 metres Backstroke and was unfortunate not to add to this in the 50 freestyle and the 100 metres Butterfly events where he finished 2nd on both occasions. His second title came in the 100 metres Freestyle with a PB time of 1min 06.80secs before securing silver in his remaining 50’s on Butterfly and Backstroke. Training partner Harry Coker finished just behind Ellis in each of the 100 metres Backstroke, 50 and 100 metres Freestyle swims with a silver and two bronze medals. He rounded off his day with a win over 50 metres Breaststroke. James Kidd set a PB in the 100 metres IM to finish 2nd and was followed in by William Harding who took the bronze. Kidd later added a bronze over 50 metres Butterfly.

In the girls 12 years age group Brock Whiston opened her account with Gold in the 100m metres Breaststroke and was close to her best, making this a win double in her next event the 200 metres Butterfly. There were silver medals from her 200 and 100 metres Backstroke events before returning to winning ways in the 50 metres Breaststroke. In this event Courtney Wilson followed her in to make it a Romford one-two. Lindsay Maclachlan improved on her previous best 200 Breaststroke time to take the silver and Sophie Thompson chipped in with a silver in the 50 metres Freestyle. Emma Aston put in some gritty swims and should have had more to show for her toils than a bronze in the 200 metres IM.

Town swimmers also took ten golds from the twelve on offer in the girls 13 years category. Harriette Davis, swimming in a number of her less favoured events had clearly come on leaps and bounds in her breaststroke events which in turn brought vast improvements to her IM swims too. She set a new PB mark in her opening IM swim to secure her first gold and astonished many with another sizeable PB over 100 metres Breaststroke to snatch silver. She added a silver over 50 metres Freestyle before recording her second win of the day in the 50 metres Backstroke. Another confident breaststroke lap in the 100 IM again brought her through to the front and win number three. This new found confidence took her on to two more Breaststroke victories over the 200 and 50 metres distances.

13 years olds Elena Sheridan and Bethany Hall both bagged a brace of wins, Sheridan over 100’s Breaststroke and Freestyle, and Hall over 200 metres Butterfly and Freestyle. Sheridan added a silver behind Davis in the 100 metres IM and three bronze medals from 50 metres Freestyle and Breaststroke and 200 metres backstroke. Hall also secured three bronze medals for herself in each of her 100 metres swims on Backstroke, Butterfly and Freestyle. There was also a medal of each colour for Lily Rose Fancourt who had started with a third place in the 100 metres Breaststroke. Another improvement to her 100 metres Butterfly swim brought her silver before finally securing gold in her last swim, the 50 metres Butterfly. Hannah Coles continued to improve in all departments and her three medals, two silver and a bronze came from her respective 200 metres Butterfly, 200 metres Freestyle and 100 metres Freestyle swims .

The 13 years old boys, despite some good personal best swims, found the competition tough and were on this occasion restricted to just six medals in all. Conor Toolis’s best result was a 2nd place over 100 metres Butterfly and he added two 3rd places over the 50 metres Freestyle and 50 metres Butterfly. Joshua Rogers took six seconds off his previous best over 200 metres IM to take silver and a similar improvement in the 200 metres Breaststroke brought him a 3rd place. Billy Bass was 3rd in the 50 metres Breaststroke.

There were golds for 14 years old Louise Harrington in three 200 metres events, the Butterfly, the IM and the Freestyle and also over 100 metres IM and Freestyle. She nearly added more to these with 2nd place in the 50 metres Butterfly and 3rd in the 100 metres Freestyle. Team mate Kariena Tubbs was a close 2nd to Harrington in both the 200 IM and 100 metres Butterfly. Rachel Welsh dominated the Backstroke 100 and 50 metres events and she made it a hat-trick of golds with victory in the 50 metres Freestyle. She was 2nd in the 100 metres Freestyle event and finished 3rd in both the 100 IM and 50 Butterfly.

There was also a tussle between the Romford swimmers for the honours in the Breaststroke events with Gabby Wallace taking the win and Danielle Butterworth following in for silver. Wallace later took the title over the 50 metres distance with colleague Alex Rose finishing 2nd this time round. Wallace secured her third Breaststroke medal in the 100 metres event. Tom Johnson took the spoils in a close 100 metres IM encounter with Thomas Clark, though Clark claimed his first victory in his next event, the 200 metres Butterfly. He made it a clean sweep of the Butterfly events, going on to add the 100 and 50 metres swims too. Johnson pocketed his second gold over 50 metres Backstroke and added a further two silver and a bronze from his remaining events. Clark came away with two bronze medals from his two Freestyle swims.

There was success too for Town’s older swimmers with five winning performances from 15years old Tom Toolis. He was made to work hard for his first, the 200 metres Backstroke, though once this was under his belt wins over 100 metres IM, 200 metres Butterfly, 100 metres Butterfly and 100 metres Freestyle followed in quick succession. The only blemish on his race card came with a 2nd place in the 50 metres Freestyle. David Ward secured himself three bronze medals in the 100 and 50 metres Backstroke and 100 metres Butterfly.

In the Open age group, Jake Harrison was in fine form and, despite a recent illness, set PB times on practically every swim in his packed schedule. He took nine medals from his ten events though was deserving of more than just the one win that came over 200 metres IM. This had followed two silver and two bronze medals from his opening four events. Probably the pick of his swims however, was the 100 metres Freestyle where he smashed his previous best time by nearly two seconds to record a new PB of 57.76secs. Daniel Stepton restricted his programme to some of his more unaccustomed Butterfly and Breaststroke events and did well to get his hands on five medals. He snatched all three Breaststroke titles over the 200, 100 and 50 metres distances and finished as runner up on both the 100 metres and 200 metres Butterfly. Jamie Harrington helped himself to gold in the 100 metres IM and 100 metres Freestyle events and added a silver and two bronze from his 50 metres Freestyle, 200 metres IM and 50 metres Butterfly swims. Sam Whitehead had a very busy day, competing in nearly all the boys open events and whilst he finished in the top six on no less than eleven occasions had only a silver medal, from his 200 metres Breaststroke swim, to show for his considerable efforts. Andrew Ward was 3rd in the 50 metres Backstroke.

Kira Fawke and Jessica Coles each chalked up a win apiece, Fawke over 200 metres Freestyle and Coles with a PB over 200 metres Butterfly. Fawke was 2nd in the 100 metres Freestyle event and Coles added two silvers to her collection over 200 metres Freestyle and 100 metres Backstroke.

Again, well done to everybody