Stratford Sharks swimmers have recently been in action at the Midland Age Group Championships. These were held over two full weekends in the 50m Olympic size pool in Coventry with the clubs swimmers achieving some superb results including two new Midland Champions. These Championships which have very demanding qualifying times see the individual Swimming Associations of the East & West Midlands combine bringing together the best age group swimmers (Boys 10/14, Girls 10/13) from the nine affiliated counties. This year Stratford had a fantastic eight qualifiers up from just one last year, with seven making their debuts at this level.

  The competition is held over distances ranging from 100m to 1500m with the finishing places decided from the heats apart from the 200m events which have heats and finals. The first morning of competition saw 10 year olds Kathryn Lythgo and Olga Hall competing with both of them in the 200m Freestyle and Olga also in the 100m Backstroke. Excellent swims from both girls saw them both qualify for the Freestyle final, with Kathryn qualifying as the fastest swimmer from the heats. Olga followed up her Freestyle swim with 10th place in the Backstroke. In the 200m Freestyle final, Kathryn Lythgo set the pace in a close race and at the 100m mark was just 1/100th of a second ahead of the second place swimmer but with her strength telling over the second 100m she opened up a gap to take the gold medal by over 2 seconds with Olga taking 8th place.

  The second session of the day saw 3 more Stratford Sharks competing. Josh Walker was first to compete in the 400m Freestyle and despite carrying an injury which clearly affected his performances throughout the Championships he was determined to keep up his proud record of qualifying and competing in every year he has been eligible before hopefully moving on to the Youth Championships next year. William Foster, who has had a stunning season achieving qualifying times in every event he was eligible for as a 10 year old, took on the tough 400m Individual Medley and finished a very creditable 8th. Another young swimmer competing for the first time was Lucy Castle (13) in the 100m Freestyle.

  The third session of a long first day saw William Foster have a fantastic swim in the heats of the 200m Freestyle to be the fastest qualifier into the 10yr final albeit with the top four only being split by 0.33 of a second. It was not long before William was back into action in the heats of the 100m Backstroke finishing 19th overall. Kathryn Lythgo was also back in action with fellow 10 year old Ysabelle Caswell in the 100m Breaststroke with Ysabelle taking the club honours in 14th with Kathryn 19th. The last event of the first day for Stratford swimmers was the Boys 10 years 200m Freestyle final with William Foster. After the extremely close heat results the final did not disappoint and neither did William when he took the gold medal by the narrowest of margins, the top three separated by just 0.16 of a second.

  In a demanding programme William was Stratford’s first competitor on Day 2 with 10th place in the 200m Fly. Another of the debutantes at this level was Aleksander Forysiak who finished 10th in the 13yr 100m Freestyle, Josh Walker also competed in the 14yr age group. On the second weekend of competition, Olga Hall continued her good form finishing 6th in the heats of the 10yr 200m Backstroke to qualify for her second Midlands final in her first year at this level where she again went on to finish 6th. She further demonstrated her all round strength in all four strokes by taking 11th place in the 200m Individual Medley.

  Aleksander Forysiak also underlining his potential at this level took an excellent 5th place in the 13yr 100m Breaststroke before also competing in the 200m Freestyle alongside Josh Walker with William Foster 21st in the 10yr 200m Backstroke. The girls 10yr 100m Freestyle again saw strong performances from Kathryn Lythgo 5th and Olga Hall 10th. William Foster continued his demanding programme and was up with the best again with 6th place in the 10yr 400m Freestyle which also saw Christian Clements competing in the 11yr age group. These two boys also showed their skills in all four strokes in the 200m Individual Medley with William finishing 7th in the heats to qualify for the final.

  Lucy Castle swam a promising 200m Freestyle in the 13yr age group before also competing in the 100m Backstroke with William Foster taking another superb finish with 8th in his 100m Freestyle event. It was now time for Kathryn Lythgo to demonstrate her talent and ability in the Freestyle events. After taking gold in the 200m on the first weekend and 5th in the 100m hopes were high she could add a second medal in the 10yr 400m Freestyle. Swimming in the last but one heat Kathryn set a superb time but then had to agonisingly watch whilst one of her rivals pipped her time by just a second to push her into silver place, but still a terrific achievement. The clubs strength at this event was backed up by Olga Hall in the same age group with 12th place.

  The last event involving a Sharks swimmer was the boys 10yr 200m Individual Medley in which William Foster finished 7th. An excellent competition which saw these young swimmers gain their first taste of competing with great success at this level was rounded off with the results of the point’s competition. Points are awarded based on times achieved over a range of events and are designed to reward the best all round swimmers, the club’s top performers were Olga Hall 7th of 49 competitors in the girl’s 10yr age group and William Foster 11th of 50 in the Boys 10yr age group.