City of Sunderland’s swimmers continued their impressive form in the second weekend of the Northumberland and Durham Bagcat Championships held at the Neptune Centre, Middlesbrough, where the swimmers added to last weekends’ haul of medals to bring home an outstanding total of 74 medals – 22 gold, 28 silver and 24 bronze.

Saturday mornings’ session started with the club’s young swimmers in the 9 and 10 year age groups showing great composure under pressure. Eve Larson (9) took bronze with her first ever County medal for the 200m Breaststroke in 3.42.96 and Jodi Bunker (10), who valiantly held off the rest of the field in the closing stages of her race, took the Gold medal in 3.16.99. Daniel Feather and Thomas Burns competed in a very close race in the 10 years 200m Backstroke with Daniel taking the gold in 2.50.62 and Thomas finishing very closely behind in 2.51.70. The boys had a chance to add to the medal tally in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay, Adam Taylor, Wills Pierce-Harrison, Alex Pierce-Harrison and Joe Middleton raised their game for the team and took the silver medal in a time of 8.46.69. The Sunderland girls had a tough morning with both heats and finals in two hard events - the 200m IM and 200m Butterfly. Lucy Walton took bronze medals in both events, both in personal best times, while Emma Sinclair won a bronze in the 200m Individual Medley and went one better in the Butterfly winning the silver medal - both in personal best times. Isabella Bosanko won her first medal of the Championships in the 200m Butterfly winning a silver medal and edging ever closer to her National Qualifying time. After an impressive team performance, the boys still had a final to swim where Adam Taylor won the 13 years 100m Backstroke in 1.03.46, Adam Charlton took home silver in the 12 years dipping under 1.10 for the first time, and Joe Middleton won a bronze in the 14 year age group.

Saturday afternoon started off with a strong event for Sunderland’s girls in the 400m Freestyle and they did not disappoint, winning a total of four medals. Jessica Thompson after finishing fourth twice in the morning session in the 200m Individual Medley and 200m Butterfly, had a fantastic battle in the 11 year age group to take gold in the 400m freestyle; with team mates Georgina Lamb taking bronze and Laura Taylor finishing fourth. Lucy Walton carried on her impressive assault on the County winning the 12 year age group in a National Qualifying Time of 4.40.29, while Emma Sinclair won bronze in the 13 year age group with a massive personal best of 4.37.92. Daniel Feather and Thomas Burns had another exciting encounter - this time in the 200m Freestyle event. Once again this was a very closely contested race, with Daniel taking the gold in 2.30.22 and Thomas just 1 second behind in 2.31.45. Adam Charlton competed in the final of the boys 12 years 200m Breaststroke, showing great versatility to take the bronze medal. Lucy Walton finished off a fantastic day  by just piping her team mate Isabella Bosanko for the bronze medal in the 100m Butterfly. Adam Charlton was still not finished, winning a silver medal in the 100m Individual Medley in a time of 1.11.97, while Adam Taylor swam a fantastic last length to win a bronze medal for the same event in the 13 year age group.

The fourth and final day of the championships saw more success in the girls’ events, with a total of six medals in the 400m Individual Medley races. Jodi Bunker won silver in the 10 year age group – beating the six minute barrier in a time of 5.59.97. Georgina Lamb took silver in the 11 years in 5.40.40 very closely followed by Jessica Thompson in 5.40.87 taking the bronze. Lucy Walton won the 12 years in 5.22.72 and Isabella Bosanko won the bronze in 5.33.87. Emma Sinclair finished second in the 13 years with 5.14.22. In the closest race of the whole championships, Daniel Feather missed out on a Gold medal by 0.01 of second, finishing second in the 50 freestyle in 31.99, but he made up for this by taking gold in the boys 10 years 100m Individual Medley, with an impressive time of 1.20.99. The up and coming Beth Nicholson (9 years), won silver in the 50m Breaststroke, while Adam Taylor took silver in an exciting time of 2.23.19. Lucy Walton, who has made tremendous improvements in the 100m backstroke, took bronze in this event in a time of 1.12.84. Emma Sinclair won another County title in the 13 year age group breaking the 1.10 barrier for the first time to win in an impressive 1.08.39.

After a long championship the Sunderland swimmers showed great fitness and determination to add to their medals haul. Elizabeth Clements got the team off to a great start winning her first ever County medal – a bronze - in the 200m Backstroke, while Jodi Bunker won the 10 years in the same event in a time of 2.47.31. Daniel Feather finished off his fantastic Championships with a great victory in 200m Butterfly in new personal best time of 3.01.12. Sunderland competed very well in the team races in the last session, with a tremendous team ethic, where Emma Sinclair, Lucy Ellis, Isabella Bosanko and Lucy Walton just missed out on the touch for the gold medal in the 4 x 200m Freestyle relay in a time of 9.18.46 - missing the gold by 0.14. In the boys 4x100m Individual Medley relay, Adam Taylor led the team out, winning the backstroke relay in a national qualifying time of 1.01.39, followed by Wills Pierce-Harrison, Adam Charlton and Joe Middleton - to collectively take the bronze medal in a great team performance. Adam Taylor and Adam Charlton then went on to win medals in the individual 100m Freestyle, with Charlton taking bronze in the 12 year age group in a time of 1.02.19 and Taylor winning gold in the 13 years event in 57.62. The girls finished the championships on a high with Jessica Thompson taking bronze in the 200m Backstroke in 2.40.65 – to add to her earlier successes of gold in the 400m freestyle and two bronze medals in the 200m backstroke and 400m Individual Medley events. Lucy Walton won silver in the 12 years 200m backstroke in 2.30.21 and Emma Sinclair made it a double in the Backstroke events by taking gold in the 200m distance in 2.25.05. Beth Nicholson closed Sunderland’s medal account with an impressive silver medal in the 9 years 50m freestyle event in a time of 35.45.

The Sunderland team also featured prominently in the Championship awards ceremony with Daniel Feather being awarded first place in the boys 10 year age group for his outstanding performances during the championships, with equal successes being achieved by Adam Taylor in the boys 13 year group and Emma Sinclair in the girls 13 year age group awards. Jodi Bunker in the girls 10 years, Adam Charlton, in the boys 12 years and Lucy Walton in the girls 12 years, all took second place at the awards ceremony to cap an outstanding championship for the Sunderland team.

Coach Paul Woodley said, ‘The swimmers have had a fantastic championship. The number of medals gained by the team has grown year on year and this year we won more than double the number of medals we took last year. This is a fantastic result. Well done to all the swimmers.

Last weekend marked the first two days in the four day Northumberland and Durham BAGCAT 2010 Swimming Championships, held at the Neptune Centre, Middlesbrough. A strong team of swimmers from the City of Sunderland ASC made the short journey south to compete against other 9 to 14 years from clubs throughout the north east and once again the team excelled in the pool.

The weekend got off to a great start with success throughout the Saturday morning with Thomas Burns winning the gold in his favoured distance event in the boys 10 years 400m freestyle in a time of 5.13.00 winning by 7 seconds. Thomas’s brother James Burns just missed out on a medal by one second in the same event for 12 year olds. Adam Taylor started off to what was going to be a very successful weekend with an impressive win in the 13 year category in a time of 4.25.51 winning by a margin of 9 seconds. Joe Middleton took bronze in a new personal best of 4.18.70. The Sunderland boys also had great results in the 100m Butterfly with Adam Charlton and Adam Taylor both taking silver medals in their respective age groups. Daniel Feather in the 10 year category won his first medal of the weekend taking gold in the 50 Backstroke in a time of 37.52.

Not to be outdone, the Sunderland girls also had an exciting start to their campaign. Jodi Bunker won a Bronze medal in the 10 years 100 medley. Eleven year old Georgina Lamb had an amazing start, winning a Bronze medal in the 200 Breaststroke in 3.02.06 – a club record time for her age group. Georgina also achieved a silver medal in the 100m Freestyle, while Lucy Walton also took home a silver medal in the same event in the 12 year category.

The afternoon’s events saw the clubs up and coming 10 year olds - Jodi Bunker and Daniel Feather - both smashing the three minute barrier to take gold in the 200m butterfly (2.57.61) and the 200m individual medley (2.56.35) respectively. In the 11-14 year old 200m backstroke, Adam Charlton took a silver medal in the 12 years, Joe Middleton won a silver in the 14 year and Adam Taylor, after setting a new personal best in the heat of 2.16.88, went on to win a gold in the 13 year age group. Georgina Lamb continued her success in the afternoon session with an extraordinary 200m Freestyle winning the gold in a race which she led from the start with a winning time of 2.22.70. Lucy Walton produced an amazing swim to take second place in the 12 year category; her time of 2.13.01 was also a National Age Group qualifying time.

Sunday morning’s events started with the tough 400m medley, where the boys showed off their all round skills - Daniel Feather taking gold in 6.08.06, Adam Charlton taking bronze in the 12 years, Adam Taylor winning silver in the 13 years. Jodi Bunker, continued the success by taking silver in the girls 200m individual medley, while Daniel Feather was back in action a short while later to take silver in the closely contested 50m Butterfly. In her first ever County championships Amelia Bateman, coached by Sunderland’s newest coach Brian Shepherdson, had a great result winning a bronze medal in the 9 years 50m Backstroke. Adam Taylor finished the morning off with another personal best and another gold medal in the 200m Freestyle with a winning time of 2.05.94.

The Sunderland swimmer’s wrapped up a successful weekend with Jodi Bunker taking silver in the 10 year 200m freestyle in a personal best time of 2.33.94, with fellow 10 year old Daniel Feather, also winning silver in the 200m Breaststroke. In the girls 100m medley, Lucy Walton added to her collection with a silver medal, while Emma Sinclair won her first medal of the Championships taking a bronze in the 13 year category for the same event.

Coach Paul Woodley said; ‘Well done to all the swimmers who competed and we look forward to another tough but successful weekend again at Middlesbrough.’