Week 2 of the Warwickshire County Swimming Championships have taken place at the 50m International Pool at Coventry Sports Centre with a large contingent of 38 Stratford Sharks taking their place on poolside. Following the first week’s success another 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal’s were collected and another 2 County Championship titles won to add to the 4 from Week 1. Amongst other notable performances 5 age group club records were broken, making it 11 in 2 weeks with another week to go. The first event of the day saw the Boys 400m Individual Medley with Josh Walker (13) the only Shark competing. In one of the toughest events in the programme an excellent effort resulted in 7th place in the 10/14 age group.

  The first club record did not take long to arrive in the next event the Girls 200 Individual Medley, Kathryn Lythgo (9) knocking an incredible 16 seconds off the previous record to take a well earned 7th place in the 9/10 years age group with Molly Wright finishing just a few seconds behind in 11th. The 11/12 & 13 year age groups were well contested by Lucy Castle, Ellen Price, Eleri William, Lucy Tame & Kara Malins with the two Lucy’s finishing the top Stratford Swimmers in their respective age groups. The 14/17 age group was the most successful, Rebecca Sherren, Rebecca Tame, Frances Goss, Grace Wright, Caroline Ankrett & Sarah Peacop competing with the two Rebecca’s finishing 6th & 8th and qualifying for the Championship Final.

  The next event the Boys 50m Breaststroke saw 7 Sharks take part delivering 2 age group club records, a silver medal and a qualifier for the Championship Final. In the youngest 9/10 age group the club had just one qualifier, Joshua Martindale. In the 11/12 year age group Alexander Forysiak swam to 5th place taking the club’s 12yr age group record in the process. Ed Caswell finished 9th in this age group with Mathew Newman & Andrew Morley also competing. The other age group club record falling in this event went to Josh Newman (14) who took an excellent 8th place in the 13/14 age group. George Brear (17), who narrowly missed out on the 100m Breaststroke title last week, took silver in the 15/over age group to qualify for the Championship Final.

  In the Girls 100m Freestyle only 2 age groups are contested the 11/13 and 14/over. A total of 13 Stratford swimmers took part, 6 of them in the younger age group, Lucy Castle, Lucy Tame, Ellen Price , Kara Malins, Rachel Jones and Eleri Williams. In the 14/over age group, Emily Key took the victory and gold medal and was also the fastest qualifier into the Championship Final, the other Sharks swimmer being Rebecca Sherren, Frances Goss, Rebecca Tame, Caroline Ankrett, Grace Wright & Sarah Peacop. Carrying on the Freestyle theme, the Boys 200m was the next event with 10 Sharks competing in 4 age groups. In the youngest Josh Martindale, Christian Clements and Alex Bowen continued their excellent form with Josh & Christian finishing in 5th & 8th. The 11/12 & 13/14 age groups saw Ed Caswell, Andrew Morley, Josh Walker, Alex Helliwell & Joshua Newman. The 15/18 year age group had 15yrs old’s Joe Evans & Michael Ankrett competing with Joe taking the bronze medal.

  The morning session ended with two Championship finals and the Boys 11/16 Medley Relay. In the first final George Brear carried forward his excellent form from last week and took his second 50m Breaststroke silver medal of the day proving he is one of the foremost sprint Breaststrokers in the Midlands. Emily Key was the fastest qualifier into the Girls 100m Freestyle Championship Final and a new age group club record and National Youth Qualifying time saw her take her second County Championship adding to last weeks 200m Freestyle title. The Boy’s 11/16 4x50m Medley Relay saw Alex Helliwell, Josh Newman, Michael Ankrett & Joe Evans finish 5th but with all the lads still qualifying for this age group next year it was a very good performance.

  On to the second session of the day, this started with the Championship Final for the Girls 200m Individual Medley with 2 Stratford swimmers qualifying. Fine swims from Rebecca Sherren (17) & Rebecca Tame (15) saw them finish 5th & 6th. In the 800m Freestyle, the Sharks had 2 competitors Alex Helliwell & Joe Evans. A fine swim from Evans saw him take the lead from the start and extend it to 17 seconds by the end to take gold and the second County Championship title of the day for Stratford and at 15 the joint youngest male County Champion this year so far. The Boys 100m Backstroke saw 4 swimmers qualifying, Alex Helliwell swimming to 8th in the 12/14 age group along with Josh Walker & Andrew Morley. Just a few minute’s after the 800m Freestyle Joe Evans took 8th in the 15/over age group qualifying for the Championship Final.

  A total of 146 Girls in 4 age groups entered the 50m Breaststroke including 19 Stratford Sharks. The 9/10 age group saw 7 swimmers, Annie Cox, Kathryn Lythgo, Elinor Bird, Chloe Hale, Olga Hall & Hannah Bexson with Molly Wright finishing top Shark in 6th place. Laura Bryan went one place better finishing 5th in the 11/12 age group which included Megan Pashley, Sophie Warden, Eleri Williams, Ellen Price & Lucy Castle. The 13yr age group saw 4 swimmers finish in the top 10, Kara Malins 4th, Lucy Tame 7th, Chloe Bird 8th & Carla Neiss 10th. The 14yr age group saw Rebecca Tame and Sarah Peacop with Rebecca finishing 7th in her age group and also qualifying for the Championship final.

  The Girls 200m Backstroke saw the last of the age group club records. Molly Wright took another top 10 position finishing 8th with Chloe Hale and Olga Hall also turning in good performances. The 11/12 age group had Lucy Castle finishing 6th with Ellen Price and Megan Pashley also qualifying in this event. Lucy Tame & Kara Malins also achieved top 10 places finishing 6th & 8th in the 13yr age group with Rebecca Sherren establishing the new club mark with a fine 6th in the 14/over age group.

  The day was rounded off with Sharks interest in the last two Championship finals of the day Joe Evans (15) in the 100 Backstroke and Rebecca Tame (15) in the 50m Breaststroke. Both of them swimming personal bests in the heats and after a long hard day they both went on to improve their times further with Joe taking 7th and Rebecca 4th. With just one week to go everybody is delighted with the performances across the age group’s which has seen a number of the swimmers performing well at the youngest end of multiple year age groups and young swimmers making it into County Championship Finals which is a fantastic indication of the potential for the next few years.