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”.

Photograph: Matthew receiving his British Swimming Record certificate for LAST YEAR'S 800m free record from Ian Proud of Chester-Le-Street ASC on 29/10/2010.

Fourteen year old Matthew Wylie is now a triple British record holder, thanks to phenomenal performances in the Junior Bagcat Gala held at Chester – le – Street and the ASANER Championships held at Sunderland’s Aquatic Centre. Matthew added to his long and impressive list of achievements in the pool by smashing the 1500m freestyle (S9) short course record in a time of 19.18.64 – beating the nine year old record by an outstanding 2.15.03 minutes. Matthew also broke his own 800m freestyle (S9) short course record by 1.18.17 with a split time of 10.21.15. At the ASANER Championships, Matthew went on to take his third British record, again by breaking his own short course record, this time the 400m individual medley (S9) by a margin of 45.22 seconds, with a time of 5.45.35.

Triple British record holder Matthew, who is a member of the Regional Disability Squad and the World Class Talent Programme, now has his sights firmly upon the 400m individual medley, the 800m and 1500m freestyle European and World records.

Coach Gordon Rea said, ‘'Matthew has shown what can be achieved by hard work and dedication. Breaking these records by such huge margins is a fantastic achievement.'

The Sunderland Ladies Water Polo team, maintained their position at the top of Division 4 with an excellent 14 - 7 victory over the previously undefeated Southampton, who were unable to prevent last season's top scorer Anna Richardson from netting seven times. The ladies followed this with an 8 - 8 draw against the London Penguin Rockhoppers, where the Rockhoppers fought back strongly from a 5 - 3 deficit to snatch a draw in the last few minutes of the game.

After four games Sunderland lead the Division 4 table.

Sunderland 7pts.
Southampton City 5pts
London Penguin Rockhoppers 5pts
Polytechnic 3pts
Manchester D 0pts