City of Sunderland fielded a strong team of 14 swimmers for the 2014 National Championships held at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge pool.
Jonny Carlisle, 21, was crowned national champion in the 200m backstroke. Swimming in the 19 and over age group, Jonny finished second in the heats in a time of 2:01.49 and then produced an almost two second personal best (PB) to finish first in the final in 1:58.99. In a closely fought race, Jonny finished just one tenth of a second ahead of Charlie Boldison of the University of Stirling Club. This result moves places Jonny in the British All Time top ten fastest times for this event. Jonny qualified for the final of the 100m backstroke, finishing 5th.
Wining two silver medals,  Adam Taylor,18, completed his successful season in tremendous form. Adam’s first medal came in the 200m backstroke in the 17/18 Age Group. He finished 1st in the heat in 2:03.52 and then reduced this time to 2:02.88 in the semi-final, finishing third. In the final, Adam finished second in 2:01.14, a huge PB of more than three seconds. This time places him 4th in the British All Time rankings and first in the current rankings in the 18 year old age groups. Adam’s success continued as he won a second silver medal in the 100m backstroke, finishing first in the heats in a time of 56.73, second in the semi-finals in 56.63, a new PB, and second in the final in 56.76 just three tenths of a second behind the winner, Joseph Hulme of Plymouth Leander. Adam had a busy meet as he also qualified for the 100m butterfly finishing 11th in the semi finals in 56.04 and was 5th in the final of the 50m Open backstroke in 27.02. In the 50m Open butterfly, Adam finished in 13th place in 25.28 and was 24th in the 50m freestyle in a new PB of 24.50.
Our final medallist was Freya Rayner,15, whose championships nearly ended in disaster as she was taken ill at the beginning of the meet and was unable to compete until the penultimate day of competition. Despite this set back, Freya finished 15th in the Open 50m Backstroke event in 30.49. Saving the best to last, it was in the 15/16 year old 50m freestyle event that Freya really shone, finishing 9th in the heats in 27.07, 5th in the semi-finals in 26.80 and third in the final in a new PB of 26.30. This time places Freya second in the current British 16 year age group rankings and 5th in the North East Region Open All Time rankings – quite an achievement for a fifteen year old!
Freestyle specialist, Jennifer Tatters, 19, swimming in the 19 and over age group, had an excellent championships finishing in the top ten in two events. Jennifer was 6th in the 800m freestyle in a new PB of 9:14.51. Matching this, Jennifer also finished 6th in the final of the 400m freestyle event. Her time of 4:25.39 was just outside her PB. In the 200m freestyle, Jennifer finished 13th in 2:07.08.
Lucy Ellis, seventeen, had two outstanding swims in the 200 I/M event in the 17/18 age group. In the heats she finished 14th in a time of 2:22.58 and finished 12th in the semi-finals in a new PB of 2:21.80 – a massive long course PB of more than 8 seconds! Lucy finished 8th in the 800m freestyle in a time of 9:03.34, was 14th in the 400 I/M and 17th in the 400m freestyle.
Competing in the 200m, 100m and 50m butterfly events, Emma Sinclair, eighteen, recorded some very good results. In the 200m event Emma finished 16th in the heats in a new fastest time of 2:20.83 and in the semi-finals finished 16th. Finishing just outside her PB in the 100m butterfly, Emma finished in 24th place and was 68th in the 50m event.
Competing for the first time at the nationals as an individual, Gabrielle Burdess lowered her 200m breaststroke time by more than a second to finish in 42nd place in a time of 2:45.33. In the 400 I/M, Gabrielle finished 31st in 5:10.91 a solid start to her national career.
Returning from serious injuries, nineteen year olds Thomas Walker and Joe Middleton, competed in the 50m backstroke event. Thomas finished 52nd, achieving a PB of 28.20 all the more impressive following a long lay off from training. Competing for the first time as an individual at the nationals, Joe finished in 100th position with a time of 29.22 outside his best but also struggling with injury.
Sunderland men’s youth relay team competed in the 4 x 100m freestyle event where they finished a creditable 16th. Kieran Peart, 17, set a PB on the opening leg of 54.81 this was then closely matched by sixteen year olds Andrew Markham,16, and Callum Reveley,16, with split times of 54.98 and 54.73 respectively. Adam Taylor recorded a blistering place on the last leg to bring the team home in 3:36.23, recording a very fast last leg split of 51.71.
In the men’s youth 4 x 200m freestyle relay, the same team finished 21st in a time of 7:55.13 with Kieran finishing in 1:59.24, Andrew in 2:01.30, Callum in 2:00.21 and Adam in 1:54.38.
The women’s youth teams also did well with the 4 x 100m freestyle relay team finishing 33rd with a time of 4:03.53. The team was led by Freya who finished in 1:00.64 and was followed by Gabrielle with a split of 1:02.29, Laura Taylor, 16, whose split was 1:01.13 and Lucy finished with a split of 59.47.
The 4 x 100m medley team finished in 35th spot with Freya on the backstroke leg recording a time of 1:05.90, Lida Abrie, 18, swimming the breaststroke leg in a time of 1:21.86, Emma completing the butterfly leg in 1:05.43 and Lucy swimming the freestyle leg in a time of 1:00.14.
This has been a really exciting and successful season for the club and the results from this meet only serve to highlight the increasingly strong youth and senior squads within the City of Sunderland club.