Runnymede Swimmer Club County Championships Report

The swimmers from Runnymede Swimming Club participating in the Essex County Championships achieved outstanding results at Block D the final weekend for this year. Finishing as the 10^th Top Club in the County this year the Club had a record number of 35 swimmers meeting the qualifying times in a total of 211 events. The Club also won a record number of 32 Medals over the four weekends of competition including an amazing 11 Golds, 13 Silvers and 8 Bronzes and the swimmers produced 57 top 6 placings.

All the swimmers put in fantastic performances throughout the last weekend of swimming and walked away with bags of medals, placings and personal best times. The competition from across the county was as fierce as usual but the swimmers were up for the challenge and they have made the Club very proud of their achievements.

Top performer at the last weekend once again was Ellie Pirrie in the 11 year old age group after achieving no less than 4 Gold medals including 2 Event Best Times Records in the 100m and 200m Butterfly events proving that Ellie is not only the best in her age group for Butterfly in the 200m and 100m distances but also the best in her age group for a number of years. Ellie also took the Gold Medal in the 100m breaststroke winning the Final by an amazing 5 seconds ahead of her nearest rival. Ellie also took the Gold Medal in the 400m Individual Medley - a remarkable achievement for such a young and talented swimmer.

Chloe Davis in the 15 year old age group didn’t let Ellie take all the glory by swimming fantastically as well achieving a Gold medal for 200 Individual Medley, 2 Silver medals for the 100m Freestyle, 400 Individual Medley, a 4^th place for 200m butterfly and a 5^th place for 400m Freestyle, proving that she is able to put in a remarkable performance whatever the distance!!

Rory Geoghegan in the 12year old age group continued a fantastic season by achieving a gold medal for 200 Breaststroke and 9^th and 10^th placings in other events.

James Winnell in the 14 year old age group achieved a bronze medal for 100m Backstroke, 6^th place for 200m freestyle and 8^th place for 200m Butterfly. Matthew Winnell in the 15 years age group achieved a 4^th place for 200m Backstroke and Charlotte Davis in the 16years age group achieved 5^th place for 200m butterfly. Ellie Mitchell continues her first season with another fantastic performance in the 200m Butterfly achieving a 6^th place

Other notable achievements from the weekend came from Melissa Knighton aged 13 achieving 7^th place for 100m Breaststroke and 10^th place for 400m Individual medley, Byron Wood aged 9 years achieved 8^th place in 200m Breaststroke and 10^th place in the 200m Individual Medley, and Murphy Talbot was 10^th in both the 400m freestyle and 200m breaststroke.

The Squad are now training hard in preparation for the East Region Championships to be held in Norwich in May for the Youth swimmers and June for the Age Groups. The Club have a record number of swimmers achieving qualifying times for this year’s Regional Event. 6 of the older swimmers – Charlotte Davis Chloe Davis Ellie-Jade Smith Matthew Winnell William Muggleton and Patrick Neary have qualified for a grand total of 33 events between them. In the Age Groups competition RSC already have 11 swimmers who have made qualifying times with still another month to go before the closing date.