Recently, thirteen Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club members aged 9 to 17 made the short journey to Harlow Leisurezone for Cheshunt Swimming Club’s 17th Annual Autumn Open Meet. This is always a fun and noisy meet to attend, with plenty of poolside dancing during the warm up.
The thirteen swimmers took part in 48 swims, with more than half of swims resulting in personal best times and seven swimmers brought home 18 medals between them (10 Gold, 7 Silver and 1 Bronze).
Special mention must go to nine- and ten-year-old swimmers, Millie Cass, Yana Patel and Guy Spearman-Baines, who jingled home with eight gold and five silver medals! Nine-year old Yana won gold in the 50m Freestyle, 50m Breaststroke and 50m Butterfly and silver in the 100m Freestyle. Ten-year old Millie won gold in the 50m Breaststroke and silver in the 50m/100m Freestyle and 100m IM, whilst Guy took gold in the 50m Breaststroke, 50m/100m Backstroke and 50m Freestyle and silver in the 100m Breaststroke.
They were absolutely thrilled with their wins; Yana commented: “Swimming makes me feel upbeat because I love being in the water. I enjoy competing against people that are a similar age to me and I love excitement of racing. I feel proud of myself every time I win a race or beat my PB. My goal for this year is to improve the technique of my strokes, especially for backstroke which is my toughest stroke.”
Guy was enthusiastic about his personal bests, saying: “My best race at Cheshunt was my 50m backstroke because I took two seconds off my PB. For my 100m breast stroke I was so close to getting a Counties consideration time – maybe at the next meet I’ll absolutely smash it! It was funny when all the older swimmers joined in with dancing the YMCA before the warm up! I’m glad that so many other Stortford swimmers got medals too.”
Millie agreed: “I had a fab day at the Cheshunt meet, it was great fun supporting all my club friends. My favourite race was 50 breaststroke. I am looking forward to working on my speed and technique in the next year and to improve my PBs.”
Congratulations also go to eleven-year olds Isabelle Earley, Lois Fields and Meha Patel who achieved personal best times in all the races they entered.
Full list of medalists:
9 years: Yana Patel (Gold 50m Freestyle, 50m Breaststroke, 50m Butterfly; Silver 100m Freestyle)
10 years: Millie Cass (Gold 50m Breaststroke; Silver 50m Freestyle/100m Freestyle, 100m IM), Guy Spearman-Baines (Gold 50m Breaststroke, 50m Backstroke/100m Backstroke, 50m Freestyle; Silver 100m Breaststroke)
13 years: Bobbie MacDonald-Williams (Silver 100m Butterfly)
15 years: Emma Fields (Gold 400m Freestyle)
17 years: Isabella Good (Gold 100m Butterfly; Bronze 50m Butterfly), Minnie Savage (Silver 100m Butterfly)
