It was fantastic to see such a large contingent of Hythe swimmers taking part this year-20 in total, our biggest number yet. However as usual the girls outnumbered the boys—come on boys enter the open events as they are good fun to do.
Overall it was a very successful day for Hythe Aqua with lots of swimmers getting into finals and onto the winners rostrum plus 28 PBS from swimmers. Despite being a smaller group it was the boys who most of the medals!
Star of the day was Daniel Burch who won gold in the 12yrs 50m FLY and BACK. Josh Hill also had a good day winning the 14yrs 50m BREAST, 3rd in the FREE and 4th in the FLY. Sam Hindness had a winning afternoon claiming 1st in the 11yrs 50m BREAST and was unlucky not to get a medal in the 50m BACK finishing 5th. Ben Walker was the 12yrs 50m BREAST champion and Tommy Evans swam his heart out to gain bronze medals in the 9yrs 50m BREAST and FREE. Luke Riley gained some excellent PBs and moved up the rankings as did all the boys.
In the girls events the number of swimmers entered was higher overall so competition was tougher. Zara Brazier was a convincing winner in the 13yrs 50m BACK and after a controversial selection of finalist where she was out then she was in came a close 4th in the 13yrs 50m FLY. Grace Walker swam hard to get 3rd in the 9yrs 50m BACK whilst Jessica Saunders was a creditable 6th in the 11yrs 50m BACK
Katie Levitt 12yrs BREAST, Evie Burton 12yrs 50m FLY, Shanell Fakely 12yrs 50m FREE and Grace Walker 9yrs 50m BREAST were all reserves for finals but unfortunately were not required. Special mention must go to Ellie Burch, the birthday girl on the day, who despite being the youngest 10yrs old managed to get a fine 9th place and two 10th places. Well done also to Gemma Archer, Freya Coughlan, Jessica Fell, Melissa Fell, Esther Evans, Christina Freeman and Emma Levitt. |
