Opening Round Triumph for Runnymede

at the Essex Mini League

Report on the Essex Mini League Round 1 for Saturday 12^th February 2005

Runnymede Swimming Club started the new Essex Mini League season in style with an opening round win at Braintree Pool.  The league competition for novice and inexperienced competitive swimmers, involves teams from the whole of Essex.  Runnymede’s team was lead by the club’s new Assistant Coach and former Great Britain swimmer Nathalie Brown in her role as head of the Mini-League squad.  It was a great start for Nathalie’s squad in their first outing, and will give her invaluable experience for the future.

Patrick Neary got the club off to a good start by winning the second race of the meet and set himself a new personal best in the under 12yr 50m Backstroke race.  Patrick was joined by new starters Rory Geogeghan and Thomas Giles, plus Sam Goldfinch, Dave Knight and Alan Jarratt to clinch 2^nd position in the combined 6x1L Butterfly Relay.  Following on from this success, the girls under 10yr squad, formed from newcomers Abbie Brown, Alice Cain, Alice Fraser and Eloise Jennings took 1^st position in the 4x1L Breaststroke Relay in their first ever competitive race.

Thomas Honeysett was another swimmer competing in his first gala, and he proved was not overawed with the competition by winning the under 12yr 50m Breaststroke race to set his first personal best time.  Thomas also achieved a good 2^nd place finish in the 50m Butterfly race to mark his entry into competitive swimming

Rebecca Collins showed how much improvement she has made recently by setting a good personal best in the 14yr & over age group 50m Backstroke event to take 1^st place, and then added 2^nd position in the 100m Freestyle in another personal best time.  Charlotte Nobes swum to a good 2^nd position in the under 11yr 50m Breaststroke, and brother Daniel Nobes took 2^nd place in the boys race in the same age group in his first competitive gala.  In the under 12yr 50m Breaststroke Amber Milton swum well to a 2^nd position finish and in the under 14yr age group Amy Humphreys took 2^nd place in the 50m Butterfly.

Bethany Goldfinch and Thomas Giles both won their 25m Butterfly sprint races in the under 11yr age group in new best times.  In the under 14yr 50m Backstroke, Felicity Clarke performed well to take the 1^st place honours, and Masters swimmer Peter Bleeze chipped in with another win in the 50m Breaststroke race.  Amy Humphreys and Sam Goldfinch both competed well to achieve 2^nd positions in the under 14yr 50m Butterfly events

The club’s swimmers performed extremely well throughout the gala and were rarely outside the top 3 positions, but despite this, only a few points decided the final team results. Runnymede took a large team of novice swimmers to this gala in order to give them experience for the rest of the season, and judging by these results it should prove a very good league competition for the squad.