Stratford Sharks swimmers have once again provided a medal rush this time at the Rugby Swimming Club Open, seven swimmers bringing home a total of 13 medals with top performer Becky Tame (15) collecting 4 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. The first of Becky’s gold medals came in the 15/over 50m Breaststroke, an event which also saw Kara Malins (14) take silver in the 13/14 age group closely followed by Lucy Tame (13) for bronze with one of the Sharks youngest competitors of the weekend Ysabelle Caswell taking 10th in the 9/10 age group.

  The girls 100m Breaststroke saw the second of Becky Tame’s gold’s with Grace Wright (17) taking bronze in the 15/over age group. Further success in this event was provided by Kara Malins who took her second silver medal in the 13/14 age group in a new personal best time with Molly Wright just missing out to take 4th in the 9/10’s. With the Breaststroke events providing rich pickings for the girls, it was no surprise that Becky Tame added to her medal tally by taking her third gold in the 200m distance with Kara Malins following her home for a silver in the 14/over age group. Grace Wright added to the gold medals by taking top spot in the 15/over 100 Fly with sister Molly again narrowly missing out with a new personal best in the 9/10 50m Backstroke to finish 4th

  The Freestyle events also provided some good results for the Sharks girls with Molly Wright 9th, Kara Malins 9th, Becky Tame 4th and Grace Wright 10th all performing well in the 50m sprint event. Becky Tame went on to compete in the 100m Freestyle were she swam to a fine bronze medal and in the 200m improving one place with a new personal best to take silver, sister Lucy also setting a new personal best to finish 4th in the 13/under age group, Ysabelle Caswell swimming very close to her best time in the 9/10 age group. The longest event, the 400m Freestyle, saw the Tame sisters both competing with Becky taking a fine silver medal and Lucy 5th in her age group. To round off a fantastic weekend, Becky Tame took her final gold in the 200m Individual Medley in the 14/over age group with Kara Malins just missing out on a medal finishing 4th.

  The only boy competing for the Sharks was 12 year old Ed Caswell who competed strongly and in 5 events over a variety of strokes and distances never finished outside of the top 7. On the same weekend, Joe Evans (15) a member of the England Youth Talent Programme attended his third and final training camp for this season. Selected following his performances last season which culminated in the National Championships the programme is designed by British Swimming to assist swimmers move to the next level of performance swimming. A packed weekend saw Evans undertake 2 x 2 hour pool sessions per day plus dry land training and lectures