Sutton swimmers strike gold at county championships

It was a weekend of firsts, with no fewer than four of Sutton’s swimmers claiming their first ever gold medals for outright winning events in their own age group at this level of competition.

Head coach Lee Bunker said: “I was again delighted with the performance of all Sutton swimmers this weekend.

“I am very impressed by all the County qualification times achieved this year and thankful for all the hard work and effort put in by the swimmers, their parents, my coaching team and the club officials, who all enable the club to keep running and all keep contributing towards producing these outstanding results.”

Harrison Clarke (14) added to his silver and bronze medals from the first weekend of county competition by winning that elusive gold in the 400m Freestyle event.

He set a new Personal Best time of 4.44.91 to win by over two seconds from his nearest rival in his age group.

This also saw Harrison claim silver medal in the overall Junior Championship awards.

Harrison went on to win an impressive haul of a further four Junior Championship awards (another silver and three bronze) together with three more silver and one bronze medals in his own age group.

Harrison is proving to be a great all around swimmer with medals last weekend in Freestyle, Backstroke and Breaststroke events whilst also reaching the final of a Butterfly event.

Jared Collins (14) added to his first ever County bronze medal from the first weekend of competition by winning the County Champion age group title and his first ever gold medal in the 50m Butterfly event.

Jared qualified for the final in second place with a heat swim time of 30.60, but he smashed that time in the final to win gold with a new Personal Best time of 29.47.

That also secured Jared the silver medal in the overall Junior Championship awards.

Jared continued his fine winning form by claiming two more bronze age group medals in 200m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke.

Jack Hill (10), competing in his first ever County Championships in the 10/11yrs age group, added to his silver medal from the first weekend of competition by claiming his first ever gold in the 100m Breaststroke event. Jack had qualified for the final against boys a year older than him in the fastest time and held his nerve, determination and technique to win the final in a new Personal Best time of 1.46.29.

He just missed out on another medal this weekend in the 50m Breaststroke final, finishing fourth place.

Chloe Morton (11) competing in her first ever County Championships added to her previous bronze medal from the first weekend of competition by winning gold in the 200m Butterfly event in a time of 3.44.61.

This result was the highlight for Chloe this weekend who also finished fifth in 200m Backstroke and fifth in the 50m Butterfly final as well as finishing ninth in 100m Backstroke, and 11th in both 100m Breaststroke and 50m Backstroke.

The other impressive firsts this weekend came from Thomas Swales (13) who miraculously improved on his performances from the first weekend of competition, to completely dominate this second weekend of the County Championships.

Thomas took a clean sweep of gold age group medals, winning every event he entered, so seven out of seven over the two days.

In addition, Thomas claimed four Junior Championship trophies and the relevant gold medals by beating swimmers in the age group above his own as well.

The impressive firsts from Thomas this weekend will materialise once his winning times are entered onto the British Swim rankings because, as things currently stand, Thomas will find that his winning times in 200m Freestyle - 2.09.53, 400m Freestyle - 4.33.66 and 800 Freestyle - 9.41.75 will all see him ranked first in Britain over the past 12 months against all other 13-year-olds in the country.

Sutton’s other medal winners this weekend were:

Elsa Barber (12yrs) who won 4 x Silver and 1 x Bronze Age Group medals

Evan Hawley (15yrs) who won 2 x Silver Age Group medals

Tom Trueman (18yrs) who won 1 x Silver Senior Championship and 1 x Silver Age Group medals

Harry McKeaney (15yrs) who won 1 x Silver Age Group medal

Sutton’s total medal haul from this weekend of competition were one Silver Senior Championship Medal, four Gold Junior Championship Medals, three Silver Junior Championship Medals, three Bronze Junior Championship Medals, 11 Gold Age Group medals, 12 Silver Age Group medals and three Bronze Age Group medals.