Berks and South Bucks County Championships 2010 - Day 2 - 13 March

It started with a magnificent display from Maddie Bell, Anya Charrington, Ellie Fields and Katie Boyce in the Girls 11 and under medley relay team. Swimming in the first of two heats, the girls blitzed the other teams to finish over half a length in front of their nearest challengers. Their time of 2:32.50 was only beaten by three teams in the second heat to give the girls a brilliant 4^th place, and of course the imponderable question is whether a faster seeding might have seen them pulled along to a medal.

To prove this was no fluke, the same girls then produced another 4^th place in the 4 x 50 free relay with a time of 2:16.06. In the boys BAGCAT 4 x 100 relay team races, Alex ‘Dougie’ Douglas, Jordan Marriott, Seb Lowes and Jonathan Venner finished 11^th with 4:32.44 in the medley race and 8^th in the free race with 4:21.33.

In the individual races, the girls 200 IM has shown the depth in strokes rather than ‘specialising’ in one stroke at an early age with most girls improving on their times, some quite considerably. Charrington, Fields, Boyce all done well in the 11 year group. Jordan Langridge, Ellie Wood, Jenny Taylor and Natalia Ciecierska-Holmes all swam well in their various age groups.

In the boys 100 free event, there were once again some great swims for Dougie Douglas, Tads Ciecierski-Holmes, Tommy Trees and also a medal winning swim for Bruno Kempster with a gold in the 10 year age group. The girls 100 breast saw Southeast Regional qualifying times for Katie Boyce and Ellie Fields with further good swims coming from Taylor, Charrington and County debutant Gemma Phillips.

In the boys 50m breast, Loughborough-based sprint specialist York-Peter Kloppel swam a below par 33.29 but it was enough to make the final. There were once again great swims from the younger section with Josh Goble picking up a silver medal in the 11 year group where Alex Bakker-Noguer just missed out with an encouraging 4^th place. Bruno Kempster, Jonno Venner and Niko Ciecierski-Holmes also swam well in the same event.

200 Back was next for the young ladies and once again some great improvement on current times saw Fields, Charrington, Langridge and Ciecierska-Holmes all record good PB’s.

In the tough 200 fly, Bruno Kempster was sure to get a medal in the 10 and under age group as just he and another lad were the sole competitors in that group but his time of 3:16.74 was faster than some of the 11 year old boys and it guaranteed him his second gold medal of the day. In the Ladies 4 x 100 relay teams, our girls finished 8^th in the free race with 4:21.23 and 7^th in the medley event with 4:54.22.

The evening session saw the exciting boys 50 fly sprint kick off proceedings and the return of Mark Harris, another ‘veteran’ sprint specialist making his annual pilgrimage to the Magnet Leisure Centre. His 26.51 in the heats saw him gain entry to the championship final. Niko, Douglas, Trees and Bruno Kempster recorded good results in this event too.

Among the girls, Ellie Wood, 15, went under 1:06 for the first time in a long career in the 100 fly to secure her place at this year’s National Championships in Sheffield at the beginning of August, thanks to an exciting race with Lizzie Gray.

Bruno Kempster then collected another medal in the 400 free race when his 5:29.06 earned him another gold and another step closer to his first Southeast Regional qualifying time. This gold took his tally to 7 for the Championships so far. Tads Ciecierski-Holmes gained a 14-second PB in his race after a cautious start.

Last girls race before the finals was the 200 breast event and once again Southeast Regional qualifying times were gained by both Fields and Boyce with great swims in 3:13 and 3:18 respectively. Charrington and Phillips both recorded PB’s and Jennifer Taylor improved her season best too.

In the finals of the evening, Harris went one better than his second place in the heats to claim first place in 26.39 and Wood dropped a place in the 100 fly Championship final where she collected bronze.

“This has been a great weekend for the club and firm evidence that that younger guys are really beginning to shine. After last week’s great result in the Thames Valley Junior League, the club can now boost of huge improvements at the development end which has been our main objective over the past few years. With Ellie’s National qualifying time, there are still the rewards for the senior swimmers that put the effort in. All the swimmers who are producing the goods in training are getting great results and having fun in the process,” was head coach Tony Woodward's verdict.