City of Sunderland swimmers won an astonishing 10 medals at the inaugural British Summer championships which took place at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge pool last week. The club finished 8th in the medals table for the men’s events and 17th overall, leaving notable clubs trailing in their wake!
18 year olds Josef Craig and Matt Wylie dominated the freestyle events in the multi-disciplinary events. Both broke their own British Record in the 100m freestyle event, records that they had set just a few months earlier. Josef set a new S8 record of 1:00.17 in the heats and then bettered this by almost a second in the final to finish in 59.19. Matt lowered the S9 record to 58.12 in the final. Race positions were based on British Disability points and these new records gave Josef the gold medal and Matt the silver. After the race Josef said:
“I’m extremely happy, it’s the first time under the minute for me but what’s even more special is that myself and training partner. Matthew Wylie both broke British Records tonightâ€.
Josef and Matt went on to win a further three medals. Josef topped the podium again in the 400m freestyle, finishing in 4:34.00, a new PB of 3.4 seconds with Matt finishing 4th, also with a new PB of more than 5.5 seconds, missing out on a medal by just 5 points.
Matt had a tremendous swim in the MC 50m freestyle final where he finished in second place in 26.40, lowering his PB by 0.3 seconds. This time was fast enough to have won gold at this year’s World IPC Championships! Josef picked up his third medal finishing third in a time of 27.59 another PB of 2.7 seconds.  Again, both Matt & Josef broke their respective British Para Swimming records for S9 & S8 50m Freestytle. With these fantastic swims both swimmers can now have realistic hopes of qualifying for the Rio Paralympics next year.
Adam Taylor, 19, stormed to victory in the 50m butterfly touching first by a 
significant margin of 0.34 seconds to win gold. His time of 24.16 set a new PB of more than 0.5 seconds placing him 11th in the British All Time fastest times in the open age group. In the 50m backstroke, Adam won a bronze medal finishing in 26.47 behind Joe Elwood of Loughborough University and Oliver Smith of Cockermouth. His time was a new PB. Adam finished 4th in the final of both the 100m butterfly and the 200m backstroke events and was 5th in the final of the 100m backstroke. His 100m butterfly time was an impressive 2.5 second PB!
Double medallist, Jonathan Carlisle, 22, training with Bath University, won a silver medal in the 200m backstroke, touching in 2:00.13, his second fastest time this year as was his time in the 100m backstroke event where he finished in third place in 55.87.
Freya Rayner, 16, swam a thrilling 50m ‘splash and dash’ freestyle final to finish joint second in 25.67 with Katie Latham from Thanet Swim with first place going to Harriet Cooper, City of Derby, who finished just 6 hundredths of a second ahead! Latham and Cooper are more than a year older than Freya and Freya’s time, a PB of almost a second, places her third on the British All Time Rankings in the 16 year old age group – a fantastic achievement.
Freya finished 6th in the final of the 50m butterfly with a time of 28.09 – a new PB and was 13th in the 50m backstroke and 16th in the 100m backstroke events. Freya’s 50m freestyle and butterfly times are new club records in the 16 – 18 year age group and All Time Club records.
Swimming in four individual events and qualifying for three finals, 15 year old Rachel Taylor continued to demonstrate her considerable skills in the breaststroke events. Rachel finished 4th in the 200m breaststroke event with a new PB of 2:33.69, almost 2.3 seconds faster than she has swam it before. In the 50m event, Rachel set PBs in the heat and final to finish 5th in 33.65. It was a 5th place finish too for Rachel in the 100m event where she finished in 1:13.26. The 200m and 50m times are new club records in the 15 year old age group and also All Time club records. Rachel swam in the heat of the 400 I/M where she finished 14th.
Sixteen year old Zak Logue began the championships with the 400 I/M where he finished 9th in the heats with a new PB and improved his time again in the final to finish 7th in 4:36.75 which is a new club record in the 16 – 18 year age group and also broke the club’s All Time record. In the 1500m freestyle event, Zak finished 11th with a time of 16:24.11 which was a PB and broke the club record in the 16 – 18 year age group.
Mason Jacques, 17, qualified the 50m backstroke event where he finished 16th in the 17 & 18 year old age group (6th in the 17 age group) in a time of 27.60 – a new PB.
Preston SC swimmer, Jack Bridge, 21, who now trains with City of Sunderland, qualified for the final of the MC 100m breaststroke where he finished 7th with a time of 1:13.59 a new PB.
Swimming in three events, Lucy Ellis, 18, gained a top ten finish in the 800m freestyle where she finished 8th in a new PB of 9:03.49. In the 400 I/M Lucy finished 16th and was 17th in the 400m freestyle.
Fifteen year olds Amy Henshaw, Jodi Bunker, Anya Sordy and Joseph Pomfret all swam well in the championships. Amy gained a top 10 finish, with 9th place in the 800m freestyle event. Jodi finished 14th in the 200m butterfly with a new PB of 2:21.06 and was 18th in the 400 I/M. Anya also set a new PB in the 200m butterfly to finish in 2:22.02. Joseph, competing in his first major championships, finished 19th in the 200m butterfly event. This was also a new PB of 2:14.06.
Sunderland men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay team (Kieran Peart, 18, Zak Logue, Mason Jacques and Adam Taylor) qualified for the final where they finished 9th with a time of 7:48.58, a seven second improvement on their entry time. The men’s 4 x 100m medley team also finished 9th in the final with a time of 3:54.44. The team of Jonathan Carlisle, Joshua Campbell, Adam Taylor and Kieran Peart improved upon their entry time by 1.5 seconds. The men’s 4 x 100m freestyle team (Kieran Peart, Joshua Campbell 18, Jonathan Carlisle and Adam Taylor) finished 14th.
The 14 – 16 year old girls’ 4 x 100m medley relay team of Alexandra Clements, 16, and 15 year olds Rachel Taylor, Anya Sordy and Jodi Bunker swam a great race to finish 13th improving their entry ranking by seven places and their time by almost three seconds.
Sunderland’s swimmers and coaches can feel very proud of their performances at the British Championships. All had worked incredibly hard to qualify for the event and the months of training paid off with fabulous results all round coupled with a really strong team spirit both at the meet and invaluable support from the club members at home – a club that is definitely moving forward!
