Although January & February are long cold months for most people, they are exciting ones for many BSSC swimmers as the Swim England Hertfordshire County Championships take place. This year, thirty-nine swimmers aged 11-28 qualified for 179 individual events and 18 relays, which will be held in Borehamwood over three weekends.
The first session of weekend one was kicked off in style by sisters Lois & Emma Fields taking Silver in the 200m Backstroke (12 years) and Bronze in the 100m Butterfly (16+ years). Other medals soon followed and over the weekend BSSC swimmers won 5 Gold, 4 Silver and 4 Bronze individual age group medals and 37 of the 54 swims resulted in top 8 finishes in the County:
- Gold: Callum Cox (100m Butterfly 16+ years), Ella Greatbatch (200m Breaststroke 15 years), Kirsty Neill (200m Breaststroke 16+ years), Lucy Wheeler (100m Freestyle 16+ years), Meisha Trend-Evans (800m Freestyle 16+ years)
- Silver: Dan Chada (50m Backstroke 16+ years), Dylan Davenport (50m Backstroke 14 years), Lois Fields (200m Backstroke 12 years), Molly Greatbatch (200m Breaststroke 13 years)
- Bronze: Brandon Macdonald-Williams (800m Freestyle 15 years), Callum Cox (50m Backstroke 16+ years), Emma Fields (100m Butterfly 16+ years), Laura Burgess (100m Freestyle 16+ years)
- Top 8 finishes: Beau Reilly, Brandon Macdonald-Williams, Dylan Davenport, Elliot Hall, Emma Fields, Ethan David-Tostevin, Guy Spearman-Baines, Felice Chan, Lauren Gore, Lois Fields, Jago Derrington, Jakey Hayes, Meisha Trend-Evans, Miriam Moukdad, Molly Greatbatch, Robert Gor
Another Bronze medal was secured by the Mens 15/Under 200m Freestyle relay team of Robert Gor, Brandon Macdonald-Williams, Beau Reilly and Dylan Davenport who out-touched City of St Albans Swimming Club by 0.76 seconds, whilst the Mixed Championship 200m Freestyle relay team of Callum Cox, Emma Fields, Laura Burgess and Callum Davis were fourth in their event.
Even though some of them may not have medalled this weekend, our younger swimmers stepped up superbly to this level of competition. Every swimmer in the 11-13 year age groups achieved a personal best time in every event they entered, and all of them got a PB to qualify for a final and then smashed out another one in the final. Congratulations to Guy Spearman-Baines (10/11 years), Lois Fields (12 years) and Elliot Hall & Molly Greatbatch (13 years).
Swimmers additionally competed to be crowned Hertfordshire Junior (15yr and under) and Open Champions (10yr and over) and eight swimmers had great success. In the Junior Championships, Ella Greatbatch took Gold in the 200m Breaststroke and Brandon Macdonald-Williams got Bronze in the 800m Freestyle.
In the Open Championships, Callum Cox got the Gold award in 100m Butterfly and Bronze in 50m Backstroke; Lucy Wheeler took Gold in 100m Freestyle; Meisha Trend-Evans Gold in the 800m Freestyle; Dan Chada secured Silver in the 50m Backstroke; and Emma Fields got Bronze in 100m Butterfly; whilst Kirsty Neill got Silver and 15 year old Ella Greatbatch the Bronze in the 200m Breaststroke.
Full list of individual qualifiers by age group:
10/11 years: Adeline (Yin Hei) Chan, Guy Spearman-Baines, Noah Conroy
12 years: Benjamin Palmer, Eddy (Ting Hei) Cheng, Lois Fields
13 years: Elliot Hall, Molly Greatbatch
14 years: Bobbie Macdonald-Williams, Dylan Davenport, Ethan David-Tostevin, Felice (Kwan Yi) Chan, Zoe Opiyo
15 years: Beau Reilly, Brandon Macdonald-Williams, Ella Greatbatch, Freya Hadnutt, Robert Gor
16+ years age group:
- 16 year olds: Alice Longman, George Grimwood, George Taylor, Imogen Tang, Jakey Hayes, Kirsty Neill
- 17 year olds: Callum Cox, Emma Fields, Grace Mason, Jago Derrington, Laura Burgess, Lauren Gore, Lilian Opiyo, Meisha Trend-Evans, Miriam Moukdad
- 18+ year olds: Bella Parkus, Freya Reilly, Daniel Chada, Niamh James, Lucy Wheeler, Jake Lloyd
