Hythe Aqua’s Synchronised Swimming Squad have reason to celebrate as the squad scooped the Top Club Trophy at the recent Kent County Championships 2011, held in Hoo near Rochester.

This was no mean achievement as the year had begun with a small squad of only 9 registered members, and a new Head Coach charged with increasing membership. A recruitment drive saw numbers rise so that the club were able to take 27 swimmers to the County Championships.  For most swimmers, this was their first experience of a synchronised swimming competition, and their first big event swimming for the club.

The individual figures competition brought medals in every section entered.
In the Novice Section for 10 & Under Swimmers, Hythe had outstanding results with Allana Winstanley taking gold with a score of 50.479, Suzannah Turner taking Silver with a score of 49.324, and teammate Brianne Begley completing the clean sweep on the podium in bronze position with a score of 48.706. Lexie Foord took 6th with 46.412, Isabelle Partridge took 8th with 45.832, and Emily Cook took 10th  with 44.088, out of a total of 18 swimmers.
Novice (11 & Over) Figure Section saw Freya Kennedy-Harper winning a bronze medal with a score of 51.247, Olivia Walden 4th with 51.176, Lucie Challinor 5th with 50.059 and Sadie Foord 11th with 45.747. These swimmers were also awarded Kent rankings of 1st,2nd,3rd and 5th respectively, a great achievement for new swimmers, and out of 14 swimmers overall. Freya was also awarded the trophy for the highest figure score for a Kent swimmer across the Novice Section.

Then came the turn of the more experienced swimmers, with the Section 1 (12 & Under) Figure Section. In 3rd Place, with a score of 51.968 (and just 0.02 away from silver) was Meghan Jenkins. Sophie Brodie came 5th with 49.232, and Olivia Hammond took 7th with 46.864.
In Section 1, (13 & Over), Hythe had just one swimmer entered, Chanelle Champion, who scored 51.130, and took the silver medal, out of 8. Chanelle was ranked 1st in Kent for her section.

In the more advanced Section 2 (12& Under), Hythe also dominated with Mia Ilic winning Gold with 53.404, and teammate Lara Porteous just pipped into Silver position with 52.881. Mia was also awarded the trophy for the highest figure score for a Kent swimmer in section 2, against more experienced swimmers from the other competing clubs.

After the figure section of the event, the swimmers swapped their black costumes for their sequinned routine costumes. Hythe Aqua entered 2 teams into the Section 2 and Under Combination team event. This is where teams of up of 10 swimmers swim a team routine to music, and are scored by judges.

The Stars team, consisting of Sophie Brodie, Chanelle Champion, Olivia Hammond, Mia Ilic, Meghan Jenkins, and Lara Porteous swam their water-themed routine to a remix of “Singin’ in the rain”, and took 1st  place, and the trophy, with a score of 54.100.

In the same group were Club-mates, the Daisy Dukes; consisting of Brianne Begley, Lucie Challinor, Emily Cook, Lexie Foord, Sadie Foord, Freya Kennedy-Harper, Suzannah Turner and Allana Winstanley. The Daisy Dukes rose to the challenge of their first major competition and claimed 4th place with a themed routine to Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are made for Walking”. The team were ranked 3rd in Kent, a fantastic achievement for a team who were swimming together for the first time!

The Top Club trophy is awarded to the Kent club with the highest aggregate figure score across all sections. Despite having much younger swimmers than the other Kent clubs, Hythe Aqua’s excellence in technique shone through and enabled them to bring home the coveted trophy. Head Coach, Erica Moo in her first major competition in the role was delighted with the results: “I am so proud of all our Swimmers. Our dedicated Coaching team have helped the girls to master the technique required to score well in competition and these fantastic results show just how hard the girls have worked to improve their Synchro skills to a level which is the envy of other clubs around the County.”