MONSON MAKES WAVES AT ARENA ROUND 1

MONSON MAKES WAVES AT ARENA ROUND 1 

Whilst the temperature outside dropped Saturday evening, they soared inside the St John's Swimming pool for RTWMonson Swimming Club!

Hosting Round 1 of the National Arena League ( now in its 51st Annual year), the contention in the South League Division has always been fiercely tough within the Premier Division which consists of 18 of the best club teams in the South.

October 12th pitted one of the South Leagues largest club Guildford SC A&B teams against Atlantis, Sevenoaks, Sutton & Cheam and RTWMonson Swimming Clubs.

The evening kicked off with Open swimmers Rose Compton and Andre Strydom both coming in with a close 2nd place finish in the 200IM against Guildford A. This was quickly followed by the young 9-11 year old girls and boys both finishing their relays comfortably in 1st place.

This start set the pace for the rest of the team!

Max El-Mokadem secured a well fought 1st place in the 10/11years 50m Back whilst Emilia Oliver swam strong to place 1st in the 10/11years 50m Breast.

11year old Aran Bissett clinched 1st place emphatically in the U13 100m Breast, 10/11years 50m Breast and the 10/11years 50m Free.

Older swimmers Jemimah Berkeley and Louis Hayes, both U15, comfortably finished 1st in the 100m Breast. Louis also secured a convincingly 1st in the U15 100m Fly.

This evening also saw debut Arena swims for young Jack Guppy, Oli Ebrell and Chloe Edwards, one of the 3 of the Edwards family represented on the night!

After a thrilling 50 races back to back, RTWMonson concluded the evening with 12 first places, 18 second places and 11 third places, amassing an impressive 225 points to end the evening in second place, just 7 points behind Guildford SC (A team)!

Placing 3rd were Sevenoaks(192 points), followed by Guildford B (175points), Sutton&Cheam (131points) and Atlantis (93points)

Led on the night by Head Coach Graham Bassi and Karen Bradbury, Bassi commented: "This is the BEST NIGHT'S club swimming that I've seen in the last 25 years. 2 years ago we escaped relegation by 1 point and now we are challenging the elite in our sport. We are obviously delighted with the results but the execution of our skills and race plans typified our improvement. It's a strong team going places. Round 2 against the ever improving Bromley program will be our next challenge. It will be another exciting night but one that we will prepare for with complete confidence.

Coach Bradbruy was so proud of every single one of the 34 swimmers at RTWMonson who swam their hearts out for the club. "The swimmers showcased the clubs great depth. We have some really exciting emerging talent from our younger swimmers hoping to follow our older swimmers onto being national champions."

The second round will be held on 9th November where the Club hope to secure another strong finish to make it to the Premier Division Final in December, reserved for the top 6 clubs out of 18 in the South League.

If successful here, the National final awaits for the Club on 7th/8th March in 2020 at Cardiff International Pool!