More than 650 swimmers from around the region and beyond competed in City of Sunderland’s last home gala of the year. Sunderland fielded a strong squad of 50 swimmers who won a total of 75 gold, silver and bronze medals and finished third in the medals’ table behind Richmond Dale and Swim Trafford.
Lucy Ellis, 17, won seven medals, four gold medals and three bronze. Her winning performances came in the 50m backstroke and in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events. Lucy finished third in the 50m butterfly and in the 100m and 200m breaststroke events, setting five personal best (PB) times throughout the two day event.
Double gold medallists were: Gabrielle Burdess, 15, Alexandra Clements, 15, Joshua Campbell, 17, Nicole Lough, 19, and Callum Walker, 15. Gabrielle was first in the 100m backstroke and 200m butterfly achieving PBs in both events. She also finished with silver medals in the 50m butterfly and 100m breaststroke and was third in the 50m backstroke and freestyle events. Alexandra won her gold medals in the 50m backstroke and butterfly events and won a silver medal in the 100m freestyle setting a new PB in the process.
Joshua had an excellent weekend achieving eight PBS and winning gold medals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke. He also finished third in the 50m breaststroke. Nicole, a S14 disability swimmer won gold medals in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events, finishing ahead of all the able swimmers – quite an achievement. Callum, a breaststroke specialist, won gold medals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and set new PBs in the 50m and 100m freestyle events.
Our other gold medallists were: Tom Whelan, 15, Natalya Sharp, 13, Lida Abrie, 18, Jay Whitehead, 15, Anya Sordy, 14, Rachel Taylor, 14, Emma Sinclair, 18 and Freya Rayner, 15. Tom and Natalya won an impressive 11 medals between them. Tom finished first in the 200 I/M setting a new PB. He went on to win two silver medals in the 200m breaststroke and butterfly and three bronze medals in the  100m butterfly, 100m backstroke and 200m freestyle and achieved a further five PBs. Natalya came home with a very healthy medal haul of five medals: gold in the 50m breaststroke, silver in the 100m breaststroke and bronze medals in the 100m and 200m butterfly and in the 200m breaststroke, setting three PBs over the competition weekend.
Lida and Jay both won a gold medal and two silver medals each. Lida finished first in 50m and 100m breaststroke events. Jay finished first in the 10m backstroke and was second in the 200m backstroke and 100m butterfly events, setting three PBs. Anya and Rachel both won a medal of each colour. Anya finished first in the 50m butterfly, was second in the 100m butterfly and third in the 100m breaststroke and achieved new PBs in the 100m and 200m backstroke events. Rachel won gold in the 50m breaststroke, was second in the 200 I/M and finished third in the 200m butterfly events.
Emma triumphed in the 50m butterfly and finished second in the 200m breaststroke while Freya won gold in the 200m freestyle and a bronze medal in the 200 I/M. Both girls set two PBs.
Kieran Peart, 17, Jennifer Tatters, 19, Jack Tallentire, 16, Amy Henshaw, 14, Tom Brumwell, 11 and J.J. Robins, 12 won a total of 14 silver medals. Taking the lion’s share of these was Kieran who finished in second place six times in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, 50m and 200m breaststroke and in the 200 I/M. He also finished third in the 100m breaststroke and set five PBs.
Jennifer, Jack and Amy each won two silver medals. Jennifer finished second in the 200 I/M with a PB and was second in the 50m freestyle. Jack was second in the 50m and 100m butterfly, gaining PBs in each, while Amy finished second in the 200m butterfly and 200m freestyle, achieving PBs in the 50m and 200m freestyle events.
Tom Brumwell won a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke and bronze medals in the 100m backstroke and 200m breaststroke events all with new PBs and finished 4th in the 50m breaststroke and 100m freestyle. J.J. won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly and set three PBs.
Bronze medallists were Lara Greggs, 11, Jamie Kemp, 14 and Caitlin Cambrook, 10. Lara finished third in the 100m and 200m backstroke and 5th in the 50m freestyle and achieved three PBs. Jamie won a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly and Caitlin, finished third in the 50m butterfly, 4th in the 50m freestyle and 6th in the 100m freestyle events.
The club’s youngest medallist was nine year old Jasmine Campbell who finished 4th in the 50m breaststroke and 5th in the 50m backstroke – a fine introduction to long course competition.
There was some exciting racing in the relay events. Sunderland’s A Team (Alexandra Clements, Rachel Taylor, Anya Sordy and Gabrielle Burdess) in the girls 4 x 100m I/M event finished joint first with the Swim Trafford team in a time of 4:36.67 minutes!  Sunderland were just ahead for most of the race and only got caught in the final couple of metres. The B Team (Lucy Ellis, Lida Abrie, Emma Sinclair and Jennifer Tatters were third. In the 4 x 100m freestyle event the Sunderland’s A Team (Alexandra Clements, Amy Dixon, Gabrielle Burdess and Lucy Ellis) took first place by a margin of just four tenths of a second over second placed Derwentside.
The boys’ 4 x 100m freestyle team (Jack Tallentire, Joshua Campbell, Callum Reveley and Kieran Peart) finished with a bronze medal.
It was very encouraging to see some of our newer swimmers racing in long course format for the first time: Jack Ashman, Emma Corbett-Skedd, Benjamin Milford and Fran Proctor. It was also great to see Sunderland swimmers, Elyssa Palmer, Tilly Abbott and Jessica Greggs, who were not racing, turn out to support the club – a brilliant attitude from some of our youngest members.
This gala was a huge success for Sunderland not only down to the very healthy medal haul but also for the number of PBs achieved and the number of home swimmers and swimmers from other clubs who took part, the event was greatly over subscribed, and the huge army of volunteers who supported the event.