Saturday saw swimmers from SITEL sponsored Stratford Sharks travel to the 50m Olympic Pool in Coventry for the third and final weekend of the Warwickshire Championships. Another series of outstanding performances from young and old alike saw Stratford team members secure ten places in competition finals resulting in three overall championship medals to add to eight further successes in age group events.

  Stratford’s ‘top’ performer was undoubtedly 19-year old James Wardle who returned home from Loughborough University to record resounding victories in both the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly events, setting the best possible example to the team’s younger swimmers. 14-year old Emma White then built upon these successes, following up a 2nd place in her age group heat with a silver medal in the Championship final of the 100m breaststroke. White also qualified for the final of the 50m freestyle but sacrificed this swim to concentrate on her favoured event.

  Lawrie Mills was Stratford’s most prolific medal winner returning home with a gold, silver and two bronzes from a busy day of competition. Mills, competing in the 13/14 year age group, won his gold in the 400m freestyle, comfortably outpacing his contemporaries and recording the 5th fastest time of the day. This was then followed with individual bronze medals in the 100m freestyle and 200 I.M. events and a silver from the U16 freestyle relay where he teamed up with David Townsend, Robert Jolly and Tom Pilling. Townsend also added to his relay success taking silver medals in the 13/14 age group of both the 50m backstroke and butterfly. These strong performances ensured qualification to championship finals where he finished both in 8th position. Not to be outdone, Jolly, competing in the highly competitive 15/over age group, reached the same two finals finishing in an impressive 6th position on both occasions.

  Claire Bassinder was next to show fine sprinting form, taking an excellent silver medal in the 14/over heats of the 50m freestyle. Despite an impressive performance, Bassinder just missed out on a medal in the Championship final being narrowly beaten into 4th place. A fine day also saw Bassinder qualify for the overall final of the 50m butterfly finishing in 7th position and the final of the 100m breaststroke after finishing 5th in her age group heat. The 100m breaststroke proved a successful event for the Stratford team with Fran Cassidy Morris taking second place in the 13-year age group and going on to secure 7th position in the championship final. Fay Malling completed Stratford’s final contingent touching in 8th place overall.

  Behind the medal winning performances the Stratford team continued to record personal best times at all levels of competition. In the youngest age group, for the boys, Aaron Brough recorded a best of 5th place in both the 200m breaststroke and I.M., Ben Lane also touched 5th in the 50m backstroke and Josh Walker produced a day’s best of 12th in the 200m breaststroke event. For the girls, fine swims saw Megan Stanley touch 6th in the 50m butterfly and Francis Goss 9th in the freestyle. The same two events also saw Lucy Tame and Chloe Bird produce personal best times.

  In the older age groups, it was the backstroke event that provided greatest success. At age eleven Emma Bysouth touched 4th, Rebecca Tame 5th, Katie Cardwell 7th and Imogen Cork 8th, all in personal best times. Caroline Cardwell and Charli Cassidy Morris mirrored this in the 14/over category and the boys continued this success in the shorter 50m event, with Jon Tanner touching 5th, David Jolly 14th and Ben Brough 18th in their respective age groups. Tanner later repeated his 5th position in the 50m butterfly and the same event saw Grace Wright, Hattie Beaumont, Katie Pavel, Georgina Harrington and Chris Jolly all record personal best times. Wright later added an excellent 4th place in the gruelling 200m event.

  A superb day for the Stratford team continued with further personal best times from brothers Tom and Jack Pilling in the boys 100m freestyle. Aaron Robinson and Tom Lane then matched this achievement before Robinson went on to record another best time in the 200m breaststroke. The same stroke also saw a p.b. from Lizzie Boyes and Lily Russell -Wilks with fine swims in the shorter 100m event.

  This concluded another successful championship for the Sharks and provided a fitting reward for the hours of hard training over the winter months.