Press Report on the Essex County Age Group Championship Block B
Runnymede Swimming Club's members rejoined competition at the second round of the 2006 Essex County Age Group Championships. The small team of the club's swimmers out-performed expectations gaining 16 top 10 places out of 21 heat swims, with 8 of these being for the top 6 award positions.
Leading the performances at the weekend was Charlotte Delicata who equalled her highest results at major Championships by taking 4th position in a tough 14 year age group 400m Freestyle field with a massive personal best improvement of over 7 seconds. Charlotte swam to another 4th position in the 200m Backstroke for another personal best time to equal her placing in the 2005 final. She was nearly in the medals again when achieving 7th position in the 100m Backstroke only just missing the final by fractions of a second, and later that weekend she also performed well for 9th place in the 100m Individual Medley heats, with both swims for P.B. times.
Henry Newton continued his excellent vein of form at the Championships which sees him lying in 2nd place in the overall 9/10 year Boys points table. Following his success in the round 1 shorter distance events, Henry stepped up the distance to compete in the 200m Breaststroke, and gained an unexpected and well deserved 5th place with a massive personal best improvement of over 15 seconds. Also competing in their first County Championships were Rory Geoghegan and Thomas Giles in the 9/10 year age group. They finished a creditable 8th and 11th respectively in the 200m Breaststroke event, and will hopefully take this experience on to greater performances in the next round.
Runnymede's top 13-year female swimmer Sarah Wright, yet again made it to top six positions in all but one of her events during the weekend's Championship. Her best performances came in the 400m Freestyle with a personal best time for 5th position, and the 100m & 200m Butterfly for 6th places in the finals. Sarah also recorded a new best time with an improvement of more than 2 seconds in the 200m Freestyle, but just missed the medals in 7th position.
In the girls 12 year age group, Laura Humphreys showed how much improvement that she has made over the last year, by qualifying for the final of the 100m Butterfly to finish in 6th position and a personal best performance. For 12 year boys, Alex Delicata set himself three new best times as reward for a year of hard work in the training pool. He picked up 6th place honours at the award ceremony in the 200m Individual Medley for a great swim and a 9 second improvement in his time, and just missed the medals in finishing 7th and 8th in the 200m and 100m Backstroke heats respectively. Also competing in the 200m Backstroke was George Smith who improved his time by 4 seconds to fish in 10th position. Young Alice Cain improved her best time in the 9/10 year 200m Backstroke event by 9 seconds to finish in 9th position and shows great promise for the future.
Other good swims at the Championships were: George Smith 15th 100m Backstroke; Patrick Neary 200m Backstroke; Charlotte Davis 15th 100m freestyle; Alice Cain 14th 200m I/M.
Runnymede Swimming Club is looking to recruit an additional Assistant Coach to help the team with their growing membership. Anyone wishing to apply for this role should contact Heather Davis on 01702 478380. Competitive swimmers who would like to be a part of the clubs success should call Head Coach Paul Eveleigh on 01268 759043.