City of Sunderland sent a squad of seven swimmers, who qualified for individual events, and a further nine relay swimmers to compete in the five day, British Gas International Swimming Meet. This prestigious annual event now in its second year, attracted many top class swimmers including, swimmers keen to prepare for the Commonwealth Games.
The club’s swimmers rose to the occasion, achieving two silver medals and one bronze medal in the disability categories and a first place, five second place finishes and one third place finishes in the junior finals.
Seventeen year old Mathew Wylie and nineteen year old Nicole Lough competed in the Multi Classification (MC) events. Matthew has a S9 classification and Nicole has a S14 classification.
Matthew won a silver medal in the Mens MC 100m freestyle event in a time of 1:00.03 minutes and was third in the final of the Mens MC 50m freestyle event. He also picked up a sixth place in the Mens MC 400m freestyle event.  This event provided an excellent warm-up for Matthew as he has been selected as one of only six British para-swimmers to compete in the LEN European Junior Championships to be held in Dordrecht, Holland, commencing 9th July 2014.
Nicole Lough, nineteen, finished second in the final of the 100m breaststroke event in a time of 1:20.61 seconds to take home a silver medal. Nicole also finished 10th in the heat of the 200 I/M event with a new Personal best (PB) time.
Competing as juniors were Adam Taylor, eighteen and fifteen year olds Freya Rayner and Gabrielle Burdess. The swimmers claimed seven top three finishes to put them in a very good position for the forthcoming national and international meets.
Adam swimming in the eighteen and under age group, claimed two second places and a third place. His second placed finishes came in the 100m butterfly and 200m backstroke events and he finished third in the 100m backstroke event. His time of 57.42 seconds in the heat of the 100m backstroke event was a new PB. Adam also finished fourth in the finals of the 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly events.
Freya and Gabrielle swam in the sixteen and under age group. Freya started the competition off in brilliant style by swimming to victory in the 50m backstroke event. Freya then achieved two second place finishes in the 100m backstroke and 50m butterfly events. Her times of 30.20 seconds in the 50m backstroke and 1:04.64 seconds in the 100m backstroke events were both club records and All Time Club records.
Gabrielle finished second in the junior final of the 400 I/M in a time of 5:06.38 which was her second fastest time at this event.
Lucy Ellis, seventeen and Jonny Carlisle, twenty-two, were competing in the Open Age Group. Lucy finished in a creditable 9th place in the 800m freestyle event, setting a new PB of 8:59.67 minutes. Jonny, finished 5th in the Open final of the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:04.90 minutes and was 10th in the heat of the 100m backstroke event.
The relay events provided the opportunity for swimmers from Performance B and Age Group Development Squads to join Performance A swimmers to gain invaluable experience of swimming at an international event. For some this was their first taste of swimming at an event of this calibre and they did not wilt under the pressure!
Sunderland’s womens 4 x 100m I/M team finished 9th in the heat of the Club Teams event and 8th in the final. The team comprised: Freya Rayner, Lida Abrie, Jodi Bunker and Jennifer Tatters.
Two womens teams from Sunderland competed in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay with the A Team finishing 7th in the heat and an impressive 5th in the final. The A Team members were: Jennifer Tatters, Gabrielle Burdess, Freya Rayner and Lucy Ellis. The B Team: Jodi Bunker, Alexandra Clements, Eve Larsen and Laura Taylor, finished 15th in the heat.
The mens 4 x 100m I/M Team and 4 x 100m Freestyle Team finished 12th and 13th respectively in the heats of the Club Team event. The I/M Team comprised Jonny Carlisle, Joshua Campbell, Adam Taylor and Kieran Peart and the freestyle team members were Kieran Peart, Jack Tallentire, Matthew Wylie and Adam Taylor.
