Northern Area Zonal Meet, Sheffield. (Jan 2012).

Northern Area Zonal Meet, Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

City of Sunderland backstroke specialist Jonathan Carlisle was once again in scintillating form to take two gold medals at the Northern Area Zonal Meet held at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge Pool. Nineteen year old Carlisle went head to head with Sheffield’s David Gregory to take the 100m backstroke gold with a time of 56.05 and he repeated the feat in the 200m backstroke to again beat Gregory with a 2.02.01 finish.

Team mate Adam Taylor (15) continued the backstroke success for Sunderland in the 16 years and under 100m event. In an exciting duel with Preston’s Anthony Lucas for the gold medal, Taylor stopped the clock in 1.00.31 – but he had to be content with silver, with Lucas finishing ahead by a mere 0.2 of a second.

Fifteen year old Matthew Wylie won further medals for Sunderland in the Multi-Disability events, with silver medal success in the 400m freestyle and a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley.

Just missing out on the medals were Alexandra Robinson (17) and Lucy Ellis (15) who finished fourth and fifth in the 800m freestyle, while Robinson also reached the 400m individual medley finals, finishing sixth overall. Joe Middleton (16) also secured a sixth place finish in the 200m freestyle, while Jessica Thompson reached four finals to take sixth place in the 200m individual medley, eighth in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley and tenth in the 100m butterfly. Emma Sinclair (15) finished seventh in the 200m butterfly, while Jodi Bunker (12) took eighth spot in the 200m breaststroke final.

Also competing for Sunderland were thirteen year olds Laura Taylor, Freya Rayner and Gabrielle Burdess, Andrew Markham (14), Lida Abrie (15) and Daniel Heeley (21).