The Riches Strike Gold - CDC Report A team of over 60 West Suffolk swimmers descended upon the pool at Newmarket for the Suffolk County Development Championships. This competition is a great opportunity for the developing club swimmers to make their mark against some of the best developing swimmers in Suffolk, and is a stepping-stone to the Suffolk County Championships, which are held in March each year at Ipswich Crown Pools. Over the course of the weekend there were a number of great performances, with every swimmer recording at least one personal best time in one of the three sessions that took place each day. The West Suffolk swimmers did themselves proud, picking up 97 medals over both days of the competition and with some picking up County qualifying times for the 2015 Championships. Leading the way with the most County Development Championships gold medals were brother and sister team of Ciaran and Chloe Riches. Ciaran (11) picked up 6 golds, with Chloe (14) coming in just behind with 5 victories. With such a great weekend of racing, both Ciaran and Chloe came away with the highest total of individual points out of all the West Suffolk swimmers. Ciaran and Chloe both came fourth in the top boy and top girl awards respectively, which was a great achievement by both swimmers. Newcomers to the team Josh Barnes (9yrs), Ben Wortley (10yrs), Jessica McNaul (10yrs) and Emily Genner (10yrs) performed very well, showing that putting the emphasis on their technique in their training sessions pays off when it comes to competitions, with all having made great strides in the last few months. Emily’s sister Lily (11yrs) raced very well too and had great success over the weekend with victories in both the 50m and 200m backstroke events. Megan Holland (12yrs) is another newcomer to the team and she swam a great 200m frontcrawl race, as did Eleanor Shields (15yrs), who won this particular event overall with a dominating swim from start to finish. Finlay Drummond (15yrs) swam under 30 seconds for the first time in the 50m frontcrawl. In the 200m Individual Medley (IM), Casper Munro-Smith (10yrs) has a great race with his older brother Sebastian (11), with Sebastien taking home the bragging rights with a personal best time (pb). When the swimmers begin to believe in themselves and their own ability, there I no telling what they are capable of. This was the case for Beth Little (15), who put in some fantastic performances over the two days. Olivia Mortimer (15) had a great race with Charlotte Allen in the 100m frontcrawl, which resulted in both girls dipping under 70 seconds for the first time, with Annabelle Ireland achieving some good pb’s throughout the weekend as well. Connor Gillingham (10yrs) had some standout swims, attacking races from the start and never looking back. Connor went on to pick up some fantastic best times over the weekend, leading the majority of his races from the start to the finish. Taylor Bowen competed in breastroke events over the weekend, winning the 200m event and placing 2nd in the 100m event in the thirteen year age group. Innes Dunlop (9yrs), competing in her first external club gala put in some storming swims, with a 14 second pb and a 3rd place in the 200m breastroke. Innes also achieved two more pb’s in the 50m frontcrawl (4 seconds under her previous time) and the 50m backstroke (6 second improvement). Girls club captain Claire Robinson was on hand to help Innes through the competition procedure and to help calm any nerves that she had coming into the competition. In the gruelling 200m butterfly event, there was a clean sweep for the WSSC girls in the 10yr age group, with Lucy Hudson, Lauren Turner and Abigail Housley all making the podium. All three girls medalled in the 100m butterfly as well, with Lucy taking the honours, followed by Abigail and Lauren. Other gold medal winners were: 10yrs - Casper-Munro Smith (2); Connor Gillingham (3); Lucy Hudson (2); 11yrs – Lily Genner (2); Charlotte Hudson (1); Sebastien Munro-Smith (2); Caitlin McKay (1); 12yrs – Ailsa Eshelby (2); 13yrs – Eleanor Llewellyn (2); Taylor Bowen (1); Sam Wortley (2); 14 yrs – Charlotte Allen (2); Ailsa Tempest (1) and 15 years Eleanor Shields (3) and Olivia Mortimer (2). West Suffolk brought home the top club trophy for the second year running. Well done to all swimmers who competed!
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 20:00:27 +0000
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