EAST REGION
2009 Open Water Championships
and age group competitions incorporating the
Runnymede’s
Open Water swimmers had some outstanding results at the above event held at
Whitlingham Lake in Norwich this weekend. The event incorporates all the six counties
within the East Region and doubles up as the County championships. Mark Foster
was in attendance as part of a BBC crew filming the event for the Look East
television program, due to be televised on Tuesday July 28th. Swimmers
from all over the region braved the chilly Norfolk waters and the clubs
swimmers were all competing in the 1.5K
event which started at a little after 3pm just as the rain was starting to
fall.
In
the Men’s event Runnymede’s Matthew Winnell (12-16year age group) watched by
his father Steve, himself a former National age group and Masters swimmer and now
an Assistant Coach at the Club, eased into the cool temperatures of the
Whitlingham Lake along with another of the Club’s Assistant Coaches and Open
Water Coach Stuart Jago competing in the 51-59 year age group. The pair both
swam outstandingly with Matthew finished in second place overall thus
collecting his first Regional Medal. His performance earned him the Gold Medal
in the 12-16 year Regional age group event along with the Essex County ASA Gold
Medal. Representing the masters Stuart also won dual Gold medals in the
Regional event along with the county Gold medal finishing in a respectable time
indeed of 33.02.30. Stuart has been training with rest of the squad throughout
the summer at Gosfield Lake in preparation for this event.
Turning
to the Ladies from Runnymede 17 year old Charlotte Davis had an impressive swim
in the 1.5K event in the 17-19 year age group competition winning the Regional
Silver Medal and also securing the Silver County Medal as well. Charlotte not
normally renown for her distance swimming in the pool and preferring to
specialize in sprint events turned her hand to long distance swimming in Open
Water and showed some tremendous determination to do well in this discipline
this year; along with her daily pool training she has also been training
regularly at Gosfield Lake during the summer in preparation and this event which has paid off with this excellent result
Not
to be outdone was younger sister Chloe competing in the same event but in the
12-16 year age group also had an outstanding swim and in very closely fought
finish came home in third place overall to win the Bronze Regional Medal in her
Age Group along with the Silver Medal for the County. Chloe will be
representing Runnymede at the ASA Youth National Championships next week in the
100m and 200m Backstroke events
Team mate 15 year old Yvette James has also been
training hard at the lake in Gosfield this summer for the 1.5K Open Water
Championships also had an excellent swim and winning her first ever County
pennant.