Sunday saw the 1st of South Hunsley Swimming SC club galas with a total of 98 swimmers entering the various events.
This gala also sees the male and female ‘swimmer of the year’ 2011 awards presented. This is for ‘attitude in training,’ ‘improvement,’ and overall commitment. Nominations (from 4 selected adults) take place 5 times a year with 3 boys and 3 girls selected each time with points awarded at the end of the year they are totalled to give an overall winner.
The boys award went to a very surprised Ryan Arnott and the girls award was jointly awarded to Abi Stringer and Shelby Wardrobe.
In the first of the race finals the girls 11/12 100m freestyle was won by Megan Jones with Bronwyn Hepburn 2nd and Maddy Talor-West taking 3rd slot. The boys 11/12 100m free was won in convincing fashion by Johnny Dunacchie from Irfan Whittaker and Harry Taylor.
The womens open 4x1 Individual medley was narrowly won by Amy Thirkettle beating Hannah Spradberry by a mere 2 10’ths of a second. Third place went to Abi Stringer. Amy also won the 100m fly this time by a bigger margin from Emily Vickers and Shelby Wardrobe.
In the Mens I.M Ryan Arnott impressed with a 2.5 s improvement on his heat time to take 1st place with Sasha Vladimirov 2nd and Jack Parkinson in 3rd place.
In the mens open 100M breaststroke Sasha moved up into the winning position, winning easily whilst James Ketley and Ryan Arnott fought out 2nd and 3rd places, with James narrowly beating Ryan for 2nd place
In the girls 10/11 4x1 I.M Bronwyn Hepburn lead the girls home with an impressive 5’s win over Maddy Taylor-West and an improving Bethany Edwards. The corresponding boys event only had three swimmers in the final, non the less it was an exciting race with Edward Vickers coming out on top, he later added the boys 9/10 breaststroke title taking 1st place from Matthew Lyons and 3rd placed Matthew O’Neil.
In the girls 9 and Under Backstroke Ellie Hextall(below) claimed the title in a new club record beating the old record by just under a second. Emilia Wright came second with a strong swim. Both girls went on to take 1st and 2nd place respectively in the girls 9/10 years breaststroke with Katie Sagar in 3rd place.
The girls 13 and under 200m freestyle in a personal best time by Abi Stringer from Emily Lyons and her sister Alex Stringer who also recorded a personal best time for this distance. Abi also won the girls 12/13 100m fly. With the top 3 places the same as the 200.
In the boys 13 and under 200m free, James Watson came out on top beating Alex Atkin and Joseph Courtney into 2nd and 3rd place. James also completed the double by taking the 12/13 boys 100m fly title with Nick Atkin taking 2nd place from brother Alex.
The girls 14/15 100m Backstroke was won by Lizzy Wardale with Laurissa Abdul 2nd and Rebecca Sanderson recording a PB to take 3rd. Jonathan Wilkes was a convincing winner of the boys 14/15 yrs backstroke, beating Michael Adlard who managed a PB to take 2nd place ahead of Josh Smith
One of the most exciting events at the gala was the 13 and over mens ‘SKINZ’ . In the heats which were run over 1 length of the pool on frontcrawl. 24 of the 26 swimmers recorded a personal best. The first 5 qualifing for the final. The final is run over 1m 30s intervals, with swimmers completing a length of a stroke ‘pulled from a hat’. The swimmers are given a 10 s warning to prepare and then have to react to the starting signal. Once a swimmer has been eliminated (who ever finishes last) they pull the next stroke out. The first stroke pulled was fly which saw Shaun Goodall eliminated, he pulled backstoke which removed Sasha Vladimirov from the equation. Leaving Ryan Arnott, Jacob Fuller and Jonathan Wilkes to fight out the top 3 positions. Jacob Fuller was the next to be eliminated on a frontcrawl length, leaving Ryan and Jonathan. The last length was once again frontcrawl. Ryan came out as the winner narrowly beating Jonathan in what had been a hard fought final.
South Hunsley swimmers have a couple of busy weekends with the Yorkshire Championships and a home ‘Ridings’ league gala coming up.
Quick update: 8/03/12
AS far as we know, Hull and district will be taking place this year. The next one is in the Open book.
South Hunsley Swimming Club were in action once again with a “Friendly” League gala at Driffield. The “friendly” League galas are for the less experienced swimmers, the aim being to introduce them to the concepts of team galas and swimming as a ‘club’.
In the individual races Eleanor Nelson came 1st in the 13yrs girls 50m freestyle in a personal best time. There were 2nd places for Evie Trolle-Mainland (9yrs Freestyle - shown below), Alistair Jones (9yrs Breaststroke), Alexandra Casseldon (9yrs Breaststroke), James Billam (11yrs Fly) with an excellent Personal best, Chloe Mawer also impressed in the corresponding girls event. Harry Stockdale did well to finish 2nd in the boys 13yrs Backstroke as this is not his best stroke.
Michael Forster(below) swam well in the 50m Breaststroke to beat his long standing personal best. Many other swimmers also recorded personal bests.
Medley Relay (Chloe Mawer, Faith Sheekey, Hannah Greenwood, Fiona Lloyd) placing 1st, also 1st were the girls mixed‘cannon’ race, consisting of 2 girls from each age group.(Alexandra Casseldon, Emilia Wright, Faith Sheekey, Hannah Greenwood, Eleanor Nelson and Rebecca Sanderson), as did the boys in their event (Sam Hartley, Daniel Hield, James Billam, Alfie Hall, James Lucas ,Harry Stockdale). Other teams makin gthe top 2 were; Girls 13 yrs Breaststroke relay; Girls 9 yrs Medley relay; Boys 11 yrs Medley relay and the girls 9yrs freestyle relay.
Four clubs competed in the gala with South Hunsley finishing 3rd , there were only 19 points separating all four teams. The gala provided valuable experience for the swimmers involved. The club recently held their elections for the male and female club captains. Voting for both was very close with Sasha Vladimirov winning the male captaincy from Jacob Fuller and Ryan Arnott and Sarah Philipson winning the female voting from Emily Adlard
The club is also introducing a ‘masters’ section for competitive swimmers age 18+ to be run three nights a week. More information is available from the club.
If anyone feels they are able to over help in running the Hull and District Galas contact South Hunsley Swimming Club.
