Danielle Huskisson Breaks into
World Top 20

Seventeen year old City of Sunderland ASC swimmer Danielle Huskisson achieved a world top 20 ranking at the recent NER Short Course Championships held at the Sunderland Aquatic Centre. Danielle dramatically improved her 1500m freestyle time by over one minute to post a very fast 16.37.74 – ranking her as the top seventeen year old in the country and giving her a world ranking of 15th for the event.

Danielle also achieved a series of outstanding times in the other long distance events at the Championships. In the 800m freestyle she took the national number two ranking with her first sub nine minute swim of 8.43.06 and followed this up with national top ten rankings in the 400m freestyle (4.19.64) and the 400m individual medley (4.54.37).
 Her coach Alastair Johnson commented ‘Danielle has made excellent strides this season. We have tweaked her stroke to make it more effective plus we have added a lot more training volume from last season. Danielle trains really hard and is very determined at all times. Our goal now is to build on this early season promise and to ensure a good transfer to the long course swim meets’.
Last season, Danielle achieved third place in the ASA Youth Championships recording a time of 17.07.79 in the girls 16 to 17 years 1500m freestyle.

N&D Graded Meet Report (Weekend 3 Middlesbrough)

City of Sunderland ASC swimmers took an impressive haul of 15 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze medals in the third and concluding meet of the Northumberland and Durham Autumn Series, held at Middlesbrough. The club also won four age group awards for the series, with Joseph Pomfret taking the ten year old boys award with 878 points, Jennifer Sharp wining the eleven year old girls award (1437 points), Kristian Donaldson taking the 12 year old boys award (1080 points) and Laura Taylor making it a clean sweep in the twelve year old category by taking the girls award with 1676 points.
 At Middlesbrough, Jennifer Sharp contributed handsomely towards her overall  points total with a hat trick of gold medals.  Jennifer enjoyed victories in 800m freestyle in a time of 10.56.21, the 200m backstroke (2.55.66) and 100m Individual Medley (1.22.07), but was pushed in the 800m freestyle and 200m backstroke by team mate Amy Henshaw who took silver medals for both events.
Kristian Donaldson also chipped in with a gold, silver, bronze collection to boost his points total with a victory in the 200m individual medley in 2.49.29, a silver medal in the 200m freestyle and bronze in the 100m backstroke. Further success was enjoyed by fifteen year old Joe Middleton who took gold in the 1500m freestyle, overhauling the early leader, Alex Tibbs of Newburn, midway through the race going through to win in 17.08.95. Joseph also won the 100m breaststroke by a convincing margin with a time of 1.17.50.
Sarah Morris won a golden sprint double in the 50m and 100m freestyle both in new personal best times of 30.64 and 1.05.32, while fellow fourteen year old Lida Abrie won a silver double in the 100m freestyle and 100m breaststroke. In the fourteen year old boys category William Pierce-Harrison collected three medals, winning double gold in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1.11.82  and the 100m Individual Medley in 1.11.10, together with a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke.
The club’s emerging ten year olds also got in on the act with three medals for Callum Dann who won the 50m backstroke by a wide margin in a time of 39.91 and two silver medals in the 200m backstroke and 50m butterfly. Eve Larsen was a double medal winner with taking the 800m freestyle gold medal in 11.54.63 and a silver in the 50m butterfly, while Beth Nicholson added to the club’s gold medal tally with victory in the 200m butterfly in a time of 3.14.64.
Eleven year old Thomas Burns recorded this year’s fastest national age group time with a convincing victory in the 1500m freestyle in a time of 19.49.24, while a further gold medal for the club was won by twelve year old Christina Castledine in the 200m freestyle in a time of 2.26.67. Christina also took a bronze medal in the 200m breaststroke event.
There were also medal winning performances from;  William Robinson (11) who won triple bronze in the 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle and the 200m individual medley, Freya Rayner (12) took silver in the 100m individual medley and bronze in the 200m backstroke, while Gabrielle Burdess (12) won  silver in the 200m breaststroke. Bronze medal success was also achieved by; Harry Richardson (12) 1500m freestyle, Jack Tallentire (13) 100m butterfly, Ashlyn Liddle (12) 200m butterfly,  Annabelle Joyce (13) 200m butterfly and Stone Wallace (9) in the 200m backstroke.
Squad coach Gordon Rea said "All of the swimmers have performed well over the three weekends. For many it is their first taste of competitive swimming and hopefully a lot of them can now take the next steps to competing at full county and regional levels. Obviously the club is aiming to get as many swimmers to qualify for the next level of competition and these events have shown that we are making excellent progress in that direction."

Disability Short Course Nationals – Sheffield

Triple British Record Holder Matthew Wylie (14) of the City of Sunderland ASC, continued his excellent form at the Disability Short Course Nationals held at Sheffield. Matthew, swimming in the S9 classification events achieved personal best times in all eight of his events and took two silver medals in the 200m individual medley and 400m freestyle events and a bronze medal in the 100m individual medley.

Water Polo – National League 4

Sunderland Ladies increased their lead in Division Four of the National Water Polo League with two further victories against Polytechnic and Manchester Dolphins.
A determined Polytechnic took a first period lead of 1-3, but Sunderland hit back to edge a 4-3 lead in the second quarter. The teams continued to wrestle for the lead with Sunderland narrowly leading 8-7 at the end of the third period. However, a change of tactics and a disciplined display by Sunderland in the final period saw the points secured with a 12-7 victory.
In the game against a youthful Manchester Dolphins, Sunderland won convincingly by 24 -9, with top scorer Anna Richardson netting eight goals.

Diving  - Tynemouth Trophy, Tynemouth

The City of Sunderland ASC, took a squad of 10 divers to the Tynemouth Pool, for the Tynemouth Trophy Event and returned with golden and bronze succeses.
Although this was the first competitive event for many of the divers, success was enjoyed in the girls 14 to 16 year age group with Beth Collins taking gold and team mate Alex Lindsay taking the bronze medal.
 In the girls 12 to 13 group, Emily Parker finished joint tenth, Abigail Carlisle 15th, Ami Trewick 16th, Lori Corcoran 18th, Abbie Sidney 22nd and Rachel Robinson 23rd. In the boys 10 to 11 years group, Harry Jay Crann was placed seventh and Jacob Storey secured 15th place.
Overall, the City of Sunderland finished in seventh place with hosts Tynemouth winning the team trophy.
Diving Coach Steve Pattinson said, “This was a great result for all the divers today. The younger divers performed well in their first competition and the experience of the older girls brought them their rewards.”

NER SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS Sunderland Aquatic Centre 06 – 07 November 2010

The City of Sunderland Swimming Club enjoyed a successful NER short course championship at the Sunderland Aquatic Centre. The facility was tested to its maximum, simultaneously hosting both the open and age group championships in adjacent pools.

Josh Crowther opened up his competitive season to win the open 100 backstroke in 57.63 and the 50 butterfly in 25.66. Josh displayed great all round ability to take the bronze medal in a very close 100 freestyle with a solid 52.03. Team mate Dan Heeley showed excellent progress and technique to make several finals, with the best result coming in winning the open 50 metres freestyle with a best time of 23.73. Fifteen year old Alexander Pierce-Harrison also contributed to the clubs medal haul with a bronze medal in the 800m freestyle with a time of 9.16.20.

Danielle Huskisson had a fantastic weekend with massive improvements to win the silver medals in the open 800 freestyle in 8.43.06 and the open 1500 freestyle in a very fast 16.37.74. Despite racing a lot of events, Danielle’s 1500 time places her in the world’s top 20 for 2010. Team mate Laura Dawson had a busy weekend too, with podium finishes in her favoured butterfly events. Laura stormed to second place in the 100 metres with a best time of 1.01.35 and then followed that up with another silver medal in the 50 metres with time of 28.66. Laura enjoyed further success in the 400m freestyle team event, where together with Alexander Robinson, Rachel Sinclair and Kathryn Woolston- Thomas, a third place finish was secured.

Matthew Wylie continued his recent excellent form at the Chester-le-Street Swim Meet to break another British record in the S9 disability category to post a 5.45.35 in the 400 Medley.

The age group championships produced a huge number of best times from the Clubs younger swimmers. Lucy Walton had a superb two days of racing to emerge as the Bagcats winner in the girls 13 years age group with a massive 2515 points. Lucy’s successes came in the 1500 freestyle (silver) 17.25.66, 800 freestyle (silver) 9.12.57, 400 medley (bronze) 5.12.56 and then 400 freestyle (bronze) 4.39.28. Sunderland girls demonstrated their distance attributes with gutsy efforts from Laura Taylor who won the 12 years 1500 freestyle in a time of 18.37.71 plus a silver medal in the 800 freestyle with a time of 9.47.78, along with Lucy Ellis who picked up 2 bronze medals in the 1500 freestyle (17.28.72) and the 800 freestyle (9.19.94).

Adam Taylor raced a wide range of events at the weekend and won medals in the boys 14 years 800 freestyle (silver) 8.49.82, bronze in the 100 backstroke (1.04.24) and the 200 backstroke (2.16.13). This earned Adam second place in the overall Bagcats points with a high score of 2212.

Adam Charlton started his competitive season in fine form to bag the gold medal in the 200 butterfly with an excellent 2.25.11. Adam followed this up with podium visits on the 400 medley (bronze in 5.01.83) and 100 butterfly (bronze in 1.05.25). The boys had further successes with excellent performances from 12 year old Andrew Markham who took second place in the 200 backstroke with a very strong 2.30.16. Team mate Thomas Burns grabbed bronze in the boys 11 years 400 freestyle with a 5.01.58, whilst young 10 year old Joseph Pomfret won the bronze in the 100 backstroke with1.23.18.

The girls not to be out done put in some superlative performances including Jess Thompson in the 12 years 400 medley who won 2 bronzes in the 400 medley (5.30.59) and the 200 butterfly (2.44.42). Jodi Bunker completed the Club’s medal haul with a very fast 200 butterfly to take the bronze medal in 2.47.70.

Head Coach Alastair Johnson was pleased with the weekends work. “The NER championships provided our first serious test of the season, and despite many of the swimmers being in heavy training and enduring a heavy race workload, they all managed to race fast and tough. I am particularly pleased with our distance events results with many excellent performances. In the meantime, we will keep raising the bar and look forward to building on these results”.