800/1500m Inter-Club Championships with Kingston Royals 2/6/18
Saturday night at the Guildford Spectrum saw our club join up with Kingston Royals once again for some long distance short course events.
Four of our swimmers entered the 1500m freestyle event – Millie Fantham, Zoe Bainbridge, Jamie Bainbridge and Rich Mothesole. Zoe in the 15 year old category had never swum the event before and achieved a 19.32.10 and a gold medal. Likewise Millie was new to this event in the 16 year old category and also swam a gold medal time of 19.04.66. Jamie won a silver medal in the 12 year old boys category with a 4 minute PB! Rich was flying the flag for the masters section and won a gold with 22.19.99 in the over 17 years category! Over short course, this is a 60 length race and so well done to all four swimmers for even entering it!
The next event, the 800m freestyle saw 3 of our boys compete. Two of the younger boys had never entered this distance before and did extremely well! Ben Parker won a gold with a 12.39.17 in the 10 year old category and Thomas Hatchett won a gold in the 12 year old category with a 10.39.22. Ben Dibley also won a gold in the 16 year old category with a 10.43.20.
The girls 800m event saw 13 of our girls race. Eight of these girls had never competed at this distance before. (Genevieve, Sarah, Emily Shaw, Esme, Louise, Emma Richardson, Gemma & Lucy).
Genevieve White at only 9 years old, swam a great time of 12.48.67 to win a silver medal.
Sarah Soliman blasted her way to gold in the 10 year old category with 11.21.53.
In the 11 year old age group Emily Shaw won gold with 10.51.00. Eleanor White swam a 54 second PB with 11.06.55 and won bronze and Esme Sheriff came 5th with 11.42.69.
The 12 year old category saw Annabel and Cerys take gold and silver. These two girls had only just competed in this event at the SE Regionals a few weeks ago and both swam even faster again with further PB’s! Cerys swam superbly and achieved a 13 second PB and a 9.51.48. Annabel wasn’t far behind with a 15 second PB and 10.09.52. Louise Coups and Emma Richardson also did extremely well in their first 800m free event. Louise came 4th with 12.26.39 and Emma 5th with 12.32.82.
Emily Pilgrim took gold in the 14 year old age group and Lucy and Gemma Fabris put in strong swims for their first 800 free event (and possibly last they said!) and achieved 4th and 5th place with 10.59.32 and 11.20.59 respectively.
Finally, Eve Perry swam a PB of 9.43.50 in the 15 year old category and bagged a silver medal.
Well done to all the swimmers who entered these long events and thanks to the coaches Glen & Clara!
But finally a big thank you to the parents who gave up their Saturday night (even some who didn’t have a child swimming) to officiate and help poolside. Without their support, the club could not run club champs and galas!
Donna Pilgim
EPSC Reporter
