Competition reports

With older swimmers and top BSSC Gold medallist after weekends 1&2 Kaia Phillips away at a meet in Sheffield, the responsibility was left with the younger BSSC swimmers for the final weekend of the Hertfordshire County Championships.  All swimmers stepped up and performed admirably, securing eight more medals and ensuring that BSSC finished fourth in the individual medals table behind the large clubs of Hatfield, Watford and City of St Albans (third if we could have counted new recruit Callum’s medals as ours!).

On Saturday the 14 year olds dominated the Butterfly events, with Gold for Jessie Fields in 50m, and Golds for Grace Mason and Callum Cox in the 200m, whilst Jago snatch Gold in the 200m Back.  Kirsty Neill (13 Years) added to her medal collection with her fourth Gold of the Championship (400m IM).

The final day of Counties wrapped up with the fast and furious freestyle and medley relays.  Twenty one BSSC swimmers were in action but it was the 14/15 year old girls who were on superb form, with both the Womens 10/15 Yrs 200m Freestyle relay team (Issy Good, Meisha Trend-Evans, Jessie Fields, Lilian Opiyo) and the Womens 10/15 Yrs 200m Medley relay team (Freya Reilly, Lauren Gore, Jessie Fields and Lilian Opiyo) storming past the Watford teams on their way to Bronze medals.  It was a great way to end a fantastic Championships.

Congratulations to all our competitors for their successes, the way they supported each other and how they represented BSSC.  Thanks to everyone who helped in some way to the running of the sessions – let’s try and get even more of us helping out next year as our attendance continues to grow.  Finally, well done parents – you survived three weeks of bag packing, food provision, snack sourcing and emergency purchases and provided lots of great encouragement and cheering.

The Weekend 3 County finalists (50/100m events), top 8 finishers (200/400/800m events) and medallists were:

• Womens 50m Fly: Gold Jessie Fields (14 Yrs), Silver Alice Longman (13 Yrs), 4^th Issy Good (15 Yrs), 5^th Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs)
• Mens 50m Back: Silver Callum Cox (14 Yrs – Ware), 4^th Jago Derrington (14 Yrs), 6^th Oliver Gisborne (12 Yrs)
• Womens 200m Back: 4^th Freya Reilly (15 Yrs)
• Mens 200m Fly: Gold Callum Cox (14 Yrs), 7^th George Taylor (13 Yrs)
• Womens 200 Fly: Gold Grace Mason (14 Yrs), Silver Jess Penkul (16/Over), 8^th Ellen Millar-Bond (13 Yrs)
• Mens 200m Back: Gold Jago Derrington (14 yrs), 7^th Beau Reilly (12 Yrs) & Callum Cox (14 Yrs), 8^th George Grimwood (13 Yrs)
• Womens 400m IM: Gold Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs)

The 21 relay swimmers were:

• 11 Yrs Ethan David-Tostevin, Zoe Opiyo
• 12 Yrs Eliza Andrews, Leo Suo-Saunders
• 13 Yrs Ellen Millar-Bond, George Cooper, George Grimwood, George Taylor, Imogen Tang, Kirsty Neill
• 14 Yrs David Badcock, Fergal Barry, Jago Derrington, Jessie Fields, Lauren Gore, Lilian Opiyo, Meisha Trend-Evans, Sam Carter, Seb Clark
• 15 Yrs Freya Reilly, Issy Good

Final relay results were:

• Bronze: Womens 10/15 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team
• Bronze: Womens 10/15 Yrs 200m Medley Team
• 5^th place: Mens 10/13 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team
• 5^th place: Womens 10/13 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team
• 5^th place: Womens 10/13 Yrs 200m Medley Team
• 6^th place: Mixed 10/13 Yrs 200m Medley Team
• 6^th place: Mixed 10/15 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team
• 6^th place: Mens 10/13 Yrs 200m Medley Team
• 7^th place: Mixed 10/15 Yrs 200m Medley Team
• 8^th place: Mens 10/15 Yrs 200m Medley Team
• 9^th place: Mens 10/15 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team

On a cold, stormy Tuesday evening (14^th Jan), when the rest of the world were safely tucked up indoors, two intrepid Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club members, Kaia Phillips and Eleanor Mason headed off to Borehamwood for the 800m Freestyle event of the Swim England Hertfordshire County Championships.  The trip and the 32 length swim proved worth it as both got personal best times, with Kaia taking Gold in the 14 Yrs Age Group and Eleanor placing 8^th in the 16Yrs & Over age group.

They were back again this weekend, but this time as part of a 46 strong squad of swimmers who managed to match last weekend’s outstanding performances.  BSSC’s youngest two competitors, 10-year olds Ethan David-Tostevin and Zoe Opiyo, both reached multiple event finals and the squad added an amazing twenty four medals (8 Gold, 5 Silver, 11 Bronze) to the 23 from the weekend before.

The County finalists (50/100m events), top 8 finishers (200/400/800m events) and medallists were:

• Women 800m Free: Gold Kaia Phillips (14 Yrs), 8^th Eleanor Mason (16Yrs/Over)
• Men 50m Breaststroke: Bronze James Gisborne (15 Yrs), 4^th Bryn Couser (16Yrs/Over), 5^th Leo Suo-Saunders (12 Yrs), 6^th Oliver Gisborne (12 Yrs)
• Women 50m Back: Gold Kaia Phillips (14 Yrs) & Mia Carter (16Yrs/Over), 5^th Freya Reilly (15 Yrs), 6^th Laura Hull (15 Yrs), 7^th Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs)
• Men 50m Free: Bronze Callum Cox (14 Yrs – Ware) & James Gisborne (15 Yrs), 6^th Ethan David-Tostevin (10/11 Yrs), 7^th Leo Suo-Saunders (12 Yrs)
• Women 50m Free: Silver Alice Longman (13 Yrs), Bronze Kaia Phillips (14 Yrs), 5^th Zoe Opiyo (10/11 Yrs) & Lilian Opiyo (14 Yrs), 6^th Meisha Trend-Evans (14 Yrs)
• Men 200m Free: 4^th Callum Cox (14 Yrs) & James Gisborne (15 Yrs), 6^th Tain Phillips (12 Yrs), 7^th Jago Derrington (14 Yrs) & Mehdi El Mansar (16Yrs/Over), 8^th Brandon Macdonald-Williams (12 Yrs)
• Women 200m Breast: Gold Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs), 7^th Hannah Robinson (12 Yrs)
• Women 50m Breast: Silver Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs), Bronze Alice Longman (13 Yrs) & Lauren Gore (14 Yrs), 8^thCatherine Clune (12 Yrs)
• Men 50m Fly: Gold Callum Cox (14 Yrs), Bronze Callum Davis (16Yrs/Over), 8^th Ethan David-Tostevin (10/11 Yrs)
• Women 100m IM: Gold Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs), Silver Millie Fields (16Yrs/Over), Bronze Kaia Phillips (14 Yrs), 4^th Jessie Fields (14 Yrs), 8^th Zoe Opiyo (10/11 Yrs)
• Men 100m IM: Bronze Leo Suo-Saunders (12 Yrs), 6^th Tain Phillips (12 Yrs), 7^th Callum Davis (16Yrs/Over)
• Women 200m Free: Gold Kaia Phillips (14 Yrs), Bronze Alice Longman (13 Yrs) & Millie Fields (16Yrs/Over), 5^th Meisha Trend-Evans (14 Yrs), 8^th Zoe Opiyo (10/11 Yrs) & Lilian Opiyo (14 Yrs)
• Men 200m Breast: Gold James Gisborne (15 Yrs), Silver Bryn Couser (16Yrs/Over), 5^th Oliver Gisborne (12 Yrs) & Nick Botha (16Yrs/Over)
• Women 400m Free: Silver Kaia Phillips (14 Yrs), 4^th Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs)