Duo take national swim titles

Swimmers from all three local clubs were in action at the British Gas ASA National Age Group Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield at the weekend with Elliot Clogg and Lily Boseley being crowned national champions.

The event is the highlight of the National junior swimming calendar and more than 2000 swimmers took part over five long days of competition.

Swimming with the City of Sheffield elite squad, Sherwood Colliery Swimming Club’s Elliot Clogg (14) led the local charge after achieving new personal best times in the heats to secure finals places in all six individual events he entered, the 400m individual medley, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle and 100m and 200m backstroke, and all three team relays, the 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley.

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Taking the gold medal after a stunning 59.73 swim in the 100m backstroke final, Elliot now wakes up every morning as the fastest 14-year-old 100m backstroker in Britain, adding a superb silver medal to his tally in the 200m backstroke and a bronze in the 100m freestyle.

Additionally, after securing qualifying times in all four British Age Group Categories, Elliot’s successes in the individual events earned him a superb third place overall and a coveted National BAGCAT award.

Continuing the Sherwood Colliery successes, 12-year-old Lily Boseley proved she really was British Swimming’s ‘one to watch’, securing finals places in three of the six individual events she entered, the 100m and 200m backstroke and the 100m butterfly and the 4x100m medley relay. Swimming with the county’s elite Nova Centurion squad, Lily’s superb 1:06.03 in the 100m backstroke final secured her the gold medal and the fastest 12-year-old 100m backstroker in Britain accolade.

Despite not securing qualifying times in all four British Age Group Categories, Lily still finished a very credible 25th overall out of the 122 girls who entered the event in her age group.

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Completing Sherwood Colliery SC’s representation at the event, Declan Smith (14) competed in the 100m breaststroke, swimming just outside his entry time in the heats to place 22nd.

However, swimming as part of the Nova Centurion relay team, Declan swam stunning relay legs to help take the team to the finals of the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley where they placed sixth in both before then taking the team to an outstanding third place and bronze medal in the 4x200m freestyle event.

Representing Mansfield Swimming Club, and swimming as part of the Nova Centurion squad, Ben Sharrocks (13) swam in arguably two of the toughest events, the gruelling 1500m freestyle and 400m individual medley, after securing the qualifying times at the Midland Regional Championships held back in June.

Ben swam a strong 1500m freestyle in 18:20.70, just outside his entry time, to place 28th, and another strong 5:14.77 in the 400m individual medley placing 29th.

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Ben’s 959 points total from just two events placed him 68th overall out of the 127 boys competing in his age group.

Ben’s Mansfield SC team-mate, Rhys Taylor (14), also swam in the 1500m freestyle event, placing a very credible 10th with his time of 17:01.90 and 29th in the 400m freestyle just outside his entry time in 4:23.99.

Rhys then went on to enjoy team success, swimming as part of the Nova Centurion relay squad, swimming stunning legs to help take the team to the finals of the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley.

They placed sixth in both, but achieved even greater success in the 4x200m freestyle event, taking an outstanding third place and bronze medal in a team time of 8:10.13.

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Completing local representation at the event, Sutton Swimming Club’s Neve Fergie (14) joined fellow Nova Centurion squad members in two of the three relay events, swimming outstanding legs in both to help take four seconds off the team entry time in the 4x100m freestyle and placing 17th out of the 40 teams entered and another four seconds off the entry time in the 4x200m freestyle to place 14th overall out of the 40 teams entered.

Bringing the official swimming season to a close, Sherwood Colliery SC’s Imogen Gould (18) joins Mansfield SC’s Oliver Hempsall (19) and Tom Howarth (17) to compete this week at the equivalent event for 15/16yrs, 17/18yrs and 19yrs/over, the British Gas National Youth Championships, where they’ll contest individual and team events representing both Mansfield SC and Nova Centurion. Para-swimming races will also be contested in multi-classification format with positions ranked by British Disability Points.

A full round-up of their progress will be available in next week’s Chad, but can be followed, live, at www.swimming.org/asanationals.

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