REPORT :
Hythe Aqua Synchro Swimmers recently travelled to Gloucester to compete in the prestigious National Ages Groups and British Championships competitions. The three day event attracted competitors from all corners of England and Scotland who were all looking to improve on their team or individual national rankings.

The first day saw action from Hythe's 19 & Under Recreational team, consisting of Amy Campbell, Emily Cowie, Hana Mattocks, Hannah Bacon, Hayley Newman Jodie Cowie, Katie Major and Natashah Wilson. With so many teams from around the UK competing, the competition in this category was fierce. Hythe swimmers kept their composure and focus to produce their best run-through of the year and claimed an excellent 14th place.

Seven of the Hythe Squad had all successfully passed rigorous skills assessments earlier in the year and so were qualified to enter the individual figure event. Despite the very early start to the second day, all Hythe swimmers produced outstanding individual results and are now ranked nationally as follows:

12&Under years category: Jodie Cowie 31st, Amy Campbell 34th.
13/14 years category: Hannah Bacon 14th
15/16/17 years category: Lizzie Seamer 24th, Charlotte Roche 32nd, Shakira Platts 35th, Jessica Neilson 41st, , Seamer, Roche, Platts and Neilson joined together later in the day to compete in the 15/16/17 Competitive Team category. All swimmers had recently battled against all manner of injury and illness but pulled together on the day to produce yet another swim of the year and a 4th place ranking behind the UKs top three clubs.

Elsewhere, Bethany Dearlove competed in two separate categories in the British Championships event. Bethany, who trains at both Hythe Aqua and Reading Royals due to university commitments, scooped 7th place overall in the solo event and also earned individual praise from officials for the lively nature and excellent choreography of both her technical and free solo.

Earlier in the competition Bethany banded together with her Reading Royals teammates to compete in the Championship s team event, swimming both a technical and a free team. With 0.5 of a mark separating all the podium places this was a very close race indeed. The free team results saw the Reading team placed in an outstanding 1st position and when combined with the technical team results Reading claimed the 3rd place medal overall.

Head Coach Natalie Goodson was delighted with both individual and team performances from Hythe swimmers: “This is by far the biggest event of the Synchro calendar and it was great to see our teams pulling off their best performance of the year in front of a packed gallery”. Hythe Synchro now moves on to the 2009 season with renewed confidence and looks forward to another successful year.”

For more information please contact hythesynchro@gmail.com