Kelly Swimming

Gold at the School National Championships

7th February, 2004

The Kelly swim squad were back in action on Saturday at the English Schools Swimming Association Bazuka National Swimming Championships at Crawley in Surrey and achieved some tremendous results. The school came away with 1 gold and 4 silvers from 8 events entered and as predicted were involved in some close and exciting racing with school rivals Millfield.

The closest competition was in the Junior Boys category (Secondary school years 1,2 and 3) where the team of Matthew Henry, Tom Howe, Ben Clark and Philip Channon broke the 4 x 50m freestyle relay championship record twice on their way to winning gold. The record had stood since 1998 and the team were a second inside by the end of the heats and reduced it again by another ¾ second to 1.47.76 in the final. The tables were turned in the medley relay where the boys again beat the championship record but were edged out of gold medal position by Millfield by less than 0.4 seconds.

The Girls Intermediate team (years 4 and 5) won silver in the 4 x 50m freestyle relay with swimmers Jakie Wellman, Beckie Smith, Brikitta Batten and Amanda Sanderson all putting in excellent performances. Sophie Stanford then took her place in the team for the medley relay and the girls claimed their second silver medal of the competition.

In the Senior category (sixth form), the boys team of Matthew Hill, Matthew Slator, Thom Philips and Jon Wills were second in the final of the 4x 50 m freestyle relay and fifth in the medley.

Swimmers in the Girls Junior age group, Whitney Bowrin, Laura Sprague, Holly Yeo and Amy Bayliss improved their 12^th place seeding to finish 5^th in the freestyle relay which shows great promise for the future as both Laura and Amy are still in the first year and will be eligible to compete again in the same age group for the next 2 years.

The intermediate boys team finished just outside the finals for the 4 x 50m medley relay with David Hill swimming very close to his World Record time for the opening leg 50m backstroke.

Congratulations to all the team who had a very long but rewarding day and may the success for Kelly College in schools swimming competitions continue into the future.