Kelly College brave the open waters

23rd July, 2006

Kelly College Swim Squad took to the Open Water at Oddicombe Beach last weekend, when they competed in the Devon County Amateur Swimming Association’s Open Water Championships. With an impressive medal tally of 5 gold’s and 7 silvers Kelly College were awarded the Top Team Trophy.  The Junior Boys 1.5km Championship saw a repeat of last year with Matthew Henry (16) winning the event and Matthew Stacey (14) coming in second. This was the third year running that Matthew Henry has won this event and next year will see him moving up to the senior ranks and competing in the longer distance of 3km. Matthew Henry has accepted a place at Kelly College in the newly formed ‘Academy of Sport’ starting in September, which aims to launch talented athletes towards the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games.

In the Junior Girls 1.5km  Championship Kathryn Stacey (12) was competing in open water for the very first time and swam brilliantly to win a silver medal, only 10 seconds behind the winner fifteen year old Lucinda Patten from Plymouth Leander.

Western Counties Open Water Champion, Caroline Ball (17) from Kelly College, led the Senior Girls 3km Championship from start to finish with a very impressive swim and finishing only seconds behind the Senior Boys winner. Caroline will be joining Matthew Henry at Kelly College Academy of Sport in September.  In a remarkable performance second place in this event went to Kelly’s  Paralympic bronze medalist Claire Cashmore (18). Claire who has a lower arm amputation had never swum in open water before and  took a very positive attitude quite literally swum away from the rest of the field.  Claire, another student taking up a place at the Academy of Sport has already qualified for the IPC World Swimming Championships later this year to be held in Durban.

In the Senior Men’s 3km Championship, two more of Kelly’s newcomers to Open Water Swimming, Irish International Triathlete Junior Heffernan (16), placed a very respectable second in his first attempt at 3km swimming and Paralympic Swimmer David Hill (17) placed a tremendous 6^th overall. David has also qualified for the IPC World Swimming Championships and will join team mate Claire Cashmore in Durban during early December.

This was a great event for the Kelly College Swim Squad and was a welcome break from the intensive training camp in preparations for next weeks National Age Group Swimming Championships in Sheffield. All medals and trophies were presented by Rob Margetts (Torquay Leander), President of the Amateur Swimming Association and  Keith Pring (Port of Plymouth) President of the ASA South West.

Top of page