The City of Sunderland Amateur Swimming Club enjoyed considerable success at the recent South Tyneside Graded Meet held at Hebburn Pool. The Club swimmers did exceptionally well to pick up a total of 56 medals – including 15 gold.

Leading the gold rush was Gabrielle Burdess, taking four gold medals in the strong 12 year old girls’ category, with victories in the 100 and 200m breast stroke, and 200 and 400m freestyle. Prolific Gabrielle also picked up a silver in the 200 individual medley and bronze in the 100m freestyle. Team mate Ashlyn Liddle was in commanding form in the girls 13 years age group, taking all three butterfly golds at 50, 100 and 200m distance. Ashlyn followed that up with silver medals in the 200m individual medley, 100 and 200m freestyle and bronze medals in the 200m breaststroke, 200m backstroke and the 50m freestyle. Completing the girls’ gold medal haul was twelve year old Jennifer Sharp who raced a great 200m butterfly to the take first place, adding to a bronze medal from the 200m individual medley event.

Jay Whitehead set many best times to take silver honours in the girls 11 years 50, 100 and 200m backstroke and 200m individual medley, together with a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle. Rachel Robins (13) had a cracking race in the 200m butterfly to take the silver medal which was backed up with a further silver medal in the 100m butterfly event, while team mate Abigail Carlisle smashed her best time to take second place in the girls 13 years 200 and 400m freestyle races. Hannah Costello had a great meet picking up the bronze medal in the girls 12 years 50m breaststroke whilst Jazmine Moss was a popular winner of the bronze medal in the girls 10 years 50m freestyle event.

The boys were equally as successful with a huge number of best times and great racing. Callum Dann stormed to two victories in the boys 10 years 200m breaststroke and 100m backstroke. Callum kept up the good work with more medals - this time silvers in the 200m medley and 200m butterfly. Joseph Pomfret celebrated a great weekend with a brace of gold of medals in the boys 11 years 50m backstroke and the 200m freestyle.

Jack Tallentyre was in superlative form to set heaps of best times and went on to win the boys 13 years 200m backstroke, together with silvers in the 50m backstroke, 400m freestyle and bronze medals in the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly. Ryan Brewster showed great skill and effort in winning the boys 12 years 200m breaststroke and he also made it to the podium in all of the 50m events with silvers in the backstroke, freestyle, breaststroke and butterfly. Kristian Donaldson wrapped up the last gold for the city with a great win in the boys 13 years 200m breaststroke, adding to a hat trick of bronze medals from the 100m breaststroke, 50m butterfly and 200m individual medley events.

Matthew Walker-Smith was a popular medal winner in the boys 10 years age group where he picked up silvers in the 50m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 100m butterfly and 400m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m backstroke, with James Brewerton taking the 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle bronze medals, while fast improving Robert McDonnell (13) smashed all his personal best times, leaving his best result for the 100m backstroke where he took a fine bronze place.

Head Coach Alastair Johnson was delighted with the overall team performance. “It has been a great two days of racing for all our swimmers. The swimmers are definitely improving their racing skills and commitment which really augurs well for the future. It is great to see so many of our team stepping up and having a really big go.”

The City of Sunderland ASC Junior swimmers took overall second place in the latest round of the Durham and District, ‘Diddy League,’ held in Durham’s Freemans Quay Pool, against teams from Tynemouth, Alnwick, Stockton, Newburn and Middlesbrough.

Top performers were the City’s twelve year old girls with team victories for Amy Henshaw, Jodi Bunker, Lauren Patterson, Jennifer Sharp and Jay Whitehead, in the medley and freestyle relay events, while individual victories were also secured by Jodi Bunker in the 50m breaststroke and Lauren Patterson in the 50m freestyle events.

The twelve year old boys – William Robinson, James Brewerton, Thomas Burns and Tom Whelan – also chipped in with victory in the freestyle relay, while eleven year olds Joseph Pomfret and Beth Nicholson took maximum points for the City with respective victories in the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke.

In the eleven year olds medley relay events the boys – Matthew Walker-Smith, Matthew Philips, Callum Dann, and Joseph Pomfret - took second spot, while the girls – Beth Nicholson, Lola Tindle, Jazmine Moss and Bethany Star-Cooper – took third place.

Third place finishes were also secured by the nine year old boys – Joshua Wright, Joe Whelan, Joe Marsh and Luke Cullen – in the medley and freestyle relay races, while the nine year old girls – Jessica Thornton, Jennifer Shovlin, Pardis Farahi and Laura Smith - chipped in with a good performance in the medley relay event. The club’s ten year old competitors – Alisha Ballantine, Aimee Hansen, Molly Robinson, Charlotte Jurgens, Natalya Sharp, Stone Wallace, JJ Robbins, Ben Hutchinson and Harry Staines also performed well in the individual and team events.

City of Sunderland ASC swimmer Matthew Wylie once again shone brightly while representing Great Britain at the British International Disability Swimming Championships held at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge, where strong opposition was provided by squads from Japan, Brazil, Netherlands, Germany and the Ukraine.

Matthew competed in all seven paralympic events: 100m Freestyle, Breaststroke, Butterfly, Backstroke,50m and 400m Freestyle, and 200m Individual Medley, where he produced strong performances to reach all of the youth finals - recording personal best times in all but the 200m Individual Medley event. A total of 138 swimmers took part in the blue riband 100m Freestyle event, where Matthew was the sole British representative in his heat. The event was eventually won by World Record holder Andres Esteves of Brazil in 52.19.

Matthew saved his best performance until last, taking his first international medal - the bronze in the 400m Freestyle - a result that took him to eighth place in the World Rankings for the 'S9' classification.

Overall, the swimmers shattered a series of records underlining the strength of the field, with an astounding 15 British, 8 European, 2 pan-American, 1 Asian and 6 World Records being broken during the competition.

Matthew said: "I am really pleased with my performances at the weekend. It's a little bit daunting lining-up on the blocks with Olympic Champions like Jonathan Fox & Sasha Kindred - but I just tried to stay focussed. The 400 Freestyle Bronze is my first international medal.'

Next Committee Meeting.. May 2011
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