Regional success sets RTW Monson up for Summer nationals

Joining the top swimmers in the South East Region, 28 athletes from RTW Monson showed their pedigree in the recent regionals, walking away with an impressive medal haul. Taking to the pool at Wycombe over the bank holiday weekend, the Youth Championships (15 years and over) provided some tough competition in all strokes, but the Monson swimmers certainly rose to the occasion. The stakes were made higher by the fact that this key meet provides swimmers with an opportunity to achieve qualifying times for the British and home nations meets, which take place in the summer.

They faced a tough program on the first evening and first day, ranging from distance races such as 800m freestyle, to 50m sprints in fly, freestyle backstroke and breaststroke. Club Captains Alex Tollit and Isla Marshall led the way with impressive swims and supported their fellow swimmers throughout.

Grace Holmes swam in her first ever regional event and performed admirably overcoming the nerves to swim a really positive 100m Breaststroke. Many races saw the club taking places in the final, showcasing the top 8 swimmers, including Lily Deller, Reese Huckle, Chloe Edwards and Lilia Fornasier. But walking away with impressive medal success, the team clocked up twelve gold medals, ten silver and four bronze. Gold medal winners included Amalie Smith (15) 100 freestyle, 200 fly and 50 backstroke, Hannah Murphy (17) 100 freestyle, Fern Sneddon (18) 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, Aran Bissett (16) 50 breaststroke, 50 backstroke, 100 backstroke and 100 fly and Hayden Annan (17) 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle, Ilana Nightingale-Ellis (16) 50 fly and 200 fly, Jess Gable (17) 200 Backstroke.

The following day saw the swimmers compete in hard fought races which resulted in Amalie Smith taking away three golds and a silver in 200 IM, 50 and 400 freestyle and 200 breaststroke. Hannah Murphy earned herself the gold medal for 50 freestyle and silvers for 200 IM and 100 backstroke. Fern Sneddon clocked up two gold medals for 50 and 400 freestyle and Jessica Gable and Emilia Oliver also medalled in 50 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 200 breaststroke. The boys saw similar success with Hayden Annan in first place for the 100 freestyle, and Aran Bissett taking the win in both 50 butterfly and 100 freestyle. Ruben Cowley took away a bronze medal after coming in third for the 50 butterfly. The club also saw plenty of their athletes qualify for the finals in the top 8 positions, including Maddie Hind and Aubrey Armada-Bennett.

On the final day, more gold medals were achieved, Amalie took gold for 400 IM, 200 freestyle, Hannah gold for 200 freestyle, Ilana 100 fly, Maddie (15) 100 fly, Aran (16) 100 fly and 100 backstroke, Hayden (17) 400 freestyle.

The final medal tally saw the club come away with 27 golds, 16 silver and 10 bronze, with an overall tally of 53 medals, placed second in the medal table for the South East region.

Head coach, Adam Naylor said, “To have 28 swimmers qualify for the British and home nations summer meets is an incredible achievement. Our performance squads will now be working towards those competitions which take place in July and August, and we couldn’t be more proud of them.”