Adam Barrett, on a roll recently, continued his good form as the 2005 Berks and South Bucks championships got under way at Maidenhead’s Magnet Pool.

Barrett medalled in each of the first three sessions, the highlight being the gold in the 12 years 100 fly in 1:09.97, narrowly beating a regular local rival in Wycombe’s Edward Howard. Older teammates Daniel John and Bruno Bamberger both made the overall open final, placing fifth and seventh.

The boys began their championships with the 200 IM, where Reading’s highlights were an age group bronze for Barrett, a fifth spot for Callum Willcox, a year younger, and a sixth for Sam Flory, 13, in a five-second PB.

Willcox and Barrett were both in the medals in the afternoon. Willcox took a 100m breaststroke silver in probably his best event, and Barrett won a 200 back silver. James Tichband cut his 200 back entry time by some seven seconds and went under three minutes for the first time as fifth-ranked 11-year-old, with Flory also fifth, a nine-second PB this time.

PBs in the girls’ 100 back included Vanessa Wood, Amy Thomas, Rebecca Alderson and Ashley James, the latter sixth 13-year-old out of 20 and two seconds inside-entry.

Well under a second covered the eight going into a very tightly contested ladies’ 50 free overall final. Dani Mason narrowly missed a medal as Chalfont’s 24-year-old Sarah Walker moved up from slowest qualifier to win from an outside lane. Reading’s next-best efforts were sixth places in their age groups for Alderson and Kristina Paige.

Mason was the only 17-and-over to tackle the demanding 400m IM, where a solid 5.12 placed her fourth across all age groups.

Paige put in an excellent 400 IM, cutting 12 seconds off her entry time in 5:36.45 for fifth in her year, while Louise Gillatt made a similar improvement in finishing sixth one age group up.

Paige also showed her promise as a fly swimmer as the girls began the evening with their 50, her 32.55 silver beaten by just 0.07 in her age group by one of the area’s brightest age group prospects in Slough’s Ashleigh Lloyd and leaving her just one place off the overall final.

Willcox claimed his second breaststroke silver, this time over 200 metres in a field of 10, as he slashed his PB by almost 10 seconds to 3:12.58. Barrett and Flory placed sixth in their age groups, as did 15-year-old York Kloeppel, who was also eighth across the whole field.

Rachael Mills and Frankie Wilkins went into the 12s 200m free very well matched on paper. In a tightly contested field of 14, Mills took an excellent bronze in 2:34.27 – a nine-second PB – with Wilkins just touched out of the medals but in a slightly bigger PB.

Louisa Herring put in one of her best ever swims as a PB of 2:14.31 not only won the bronze in a quality 15/16 field, but was sixth across all age groups. Herring was only sixth in the year at the mid-race split, but a powerful second 100 secured the medal.

The four-week series of meets began none too auspiciously as the area’s 10 competitive clubs entered a total of only four teams in the ladies’ open relays – two from Reading, despite six top girls being away at the Swansea meet.

Reading’s "A" quartet took silvers in both the freestyle and medley, where Dani Mason swam backstroke, Rebecca Alderson breaststroke, Charlotte Thompson fly and Louisa Herring free. The Bs (Rheannon Sandell, Louise Gillatt, Amy Thomas and Beth Ayerst) placed fourth twice as Wycombe won both golds and Slough & Eton took the two third spots.

Reading also put out two of the eight 13-and-under teams and the freestyle quartet of Grace Waldron, Ashley James, Frankie Wilkins and Rachael Mills placed fifth. A very young B team of Eleanor Cawthorne, Becky Lowe, Katie Hawkins and Natalia Ciecierska – the latter, like Ayerst in the seniors, called up at short notice - placed eighth in the free and seventh in the medley, but the As were disqualified.

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