British Gas National Age Group Championships and Open Water Championships 2014

The National Age Group Championships were held at the Ponds Forge 50m pool, Sheffield marking the pinnacle to a long season of competition for the younger swimmers.  Five girls from Age Group Development and Performance A squads gained the tough qualifying times to take part in the meet.

Rachel Taylor, fourteen, representing Sunderland for the first time at the nationals and swam in the 200m and 100m breaststroke events.  Her best result came in the 200m event where she finished 14th in a time of 2:44.17 minutes.  In the 100m event, Rachel finished 24th in a time of 1:16.78 minutes.

Jodi Bunker and Anya Sordy, also fourteen, finished 17th and 18th respectively in the 200m butterfly event.  Jodi’s time was 2:24.90 minutes and Anya’s time of 2:25.73 minutes was just a tenth of a second outside of her personal best.  In the 100m butterfly event, Jodi finished in 24th place with a time of 1:06.99 minutes.

Jodi and Anya were joined by Amy Henshaw, fourteen and Elizabeth Clements, thirteen, who was making her debut at the nationals.  The quartet competed in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay, producing a solid performance to finish in 33rd place in a time of 9:06.03 minutes.

The Open Water Championships were held at the Rother Valley Country Park, Sheffield.  Making their debuts at national level in an open water event were Amy Henshaw and Elizabeth Clements.  The Age Group Development Squad swimmers took part in the challenging 1.5km event and both girls gave creditable performances. Amy finished in 12th place in the fourteen year age group in a time of 19:49.20 minutes while Elizabeth finished in 12th place in the thirteen year age group in a time of 20:18.10 minutes.

The Age Group and Open Water championships marked the highlight of a successful season of training and competition for all of Sunderland’s competitors.  The invaluable experience gained from competing in these meets will stand the fourteen year olds in good stead as they progress to competing at Youth level next season.

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