The Aquatic Centre once again hosted the Northumberland & Durham Swimming Association Championships but unlike recent years the event was held over three weekends. This enabled a full programme of events from the 50m sprints to the 800m and 1500m distance events as well as relays to take place. The top swimmers from all over the counties of Northumberland and Durham were in action resulting in many fine performances, fast times and thrilling finishes.
City of Sunderland fielded a team of 45 swimmers from Junior Gold through to Performance A Squads winning 33 medals (six gold, fourteen silver and thirteen bronze) between them. In the relay events, Sunderland took home a further two silver medals and one bronze.
Freya Rayner and Callum Reveley, both fourteen, continued a highly successful season by winning a stunning 14 individual medals between them. Freya won her first medal in the 200m backstroke, finishing second and then just a short time later finished second again in the 100m freestyle final in a national qualifying time. However it was in the sprint events that Freya really excelled, winning gold in the Fourteen Year Old age category in the 50m freestyle, backstroke and butterfly events. She then competed in the finals of the same events but in the Open Age category and won three silver medals.  Her freestyle time of 27.26 was not only and ‘All Time’ club record but also an ‘All Time’ county record for her age group! Her butterfly time of 29.33 is also an ‘All Time’ club record.
Callum took home two gold, two silver and two bronze medals from the championships. He was first in the 50m freestyle and butterfly events, winning the freestyle in an exciting race by just two hundredths of a second. Callum was second in the 200m and 100m freestyle events and finished third in the 200m and 100m butterfly events. He narrowly missed out on a medal in the 50m backstroke, finishing 4th by two tenths of a second and also finished 4th in the 400m freestyle. He set new personal best (pb) times in eight events.
Alexandra Robinson, 18, added to the club’s gold medal total by finishing first in the Open 800m freestyle event. In a very close race, Alex touched home just six tenths of a second ahead of her nearest rival, Lucy Ellis, 16, who won silver making it a ‘one, two ‘ for Sunderland.  Performance A team mate Gabrielle Burdess, 14, won three medals, winning a sliver in the 50m freestyle, and bronze medals in the 100m freestyle and 200 I/M and set five personal best times.
Thomas Burns, 13, won two medals in the backstroke events. He finished second to take home silver in the 200m event and in a close fight for 4th and 3rd places hung on to win bronze in the 100m event. He set personal best times in both events.
Jessica Thornton, 10, was the club’s youngest winner, finishing second in the 200 I/M to take home a silver medal. She also finished 4th in the 200m freestyle event. Also winning silver were Eve Larsen, 12, Joseph Pomfret, 13, Ryan Brewster, 14.
Eve came very close to winning a medal throughout all three weekends, finishing 4th in the 100m freestyle and breaststroke events and 4th in the 400m I/M. She was also 5th in the 50m and 200m freestyle and 50m breaststroke and set 9 pbs. Finally, in the last individual event of the championships, Eve triumphed in the 50m butterfly, winning silver in a time of 33 seconds dead.
Joseph swam in fourteen individual events throughout the championships, setting a new pb in each and qualified for eight finals.  His best performance came in the 100m butterfly where he won a silver medal swimming almost 3.5 seconds faster than his previous pb.
Swimming in his first county championships, Ryan performed brilliantly in the 50m breaststroke event to finish in second position. His time was good enough to break the club record which has stood for some eleven years!  Ryan also swam in the finals of the 100m and 200m breaststroke events finishing in 8th and 10th places respectively.
Ana Lazar, 11, won a hat trick of bronze medals underlining her strength in the freestyle events. She was third in the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle events. She added a 4th place finish in the 400 I/M and qualified for a further six finals, setting ten pbs.
Winning two bronze medals in the 50m backstroke and butterfly events was, Jodi Bunker, 13. She reached seven finals, including the Open 200m butterfly, finishing 10th.
Completing the individual medal tally were Joe Middleton, 17, Emma Sinclair, 16, and Jay Whitehead, 13. Joe finished third in the 50m backstroke with a new pb. Emma won bronze in the 100m butterfly and also swam in the finals of the 100m backstroke, 50m butterfly, and 200 I/M events and gained 9 new pbs. Jay’s strength in the backstroke events came to the fore, winning bronze in the 100m event. Jay finished 4th and 6th respectively in the finals of the 200m and 50m backstroke events and set 9 new pbs.
The women’s relay teams won three medals in the Open age group. The 4 x 100m freestyle team of Jen Tatters, Jodi Bunker, Freya Rayner and Gabrielle Burdess finished in second place in a time of 4:06.01 minutes. The 4 x 100m medley team of Freya Rayner, Lida Abrie, Emma Sinclair and Lucy Ellis also won silver in a time of 4:35.25 minutes. The last medal of the championships went to the women’s 4 x 200m freestyle team. Jen Tatters, Jodi Bunker, Lucy Ellis and Gabrielle Burdess finished in a time of 8:52.96 minutes taking third place.
Nine Year old Caitlin Cambrook swam in her first championships and set two new club records in the 50m freestyle (35.63 seconds) and 50m backstroke (42.17 seconds) events. She finished 5th in both finals.
Qualifying for multiple finals and narrowly missing out on podium places: Lara Greggs, 10, (5th in the 200m I/M, 6th in the 50m freestyle, 200m backstroke and breaststroke events), Natalya Sharp, 12, ( 4th in the 50m breaststroke), Amy Henshaw, 13, (4th and 5th  in the 200m and 100m butterfly and 6th in the 200 backstroke), Lauren Patterson, 14, (4th in the 50m freestyle and butterfly, 5th in the 100m backstroke and 200m breaststroke, 6th in the freestyle, 200m and 400m I/M), Jennifer Sharp, 14, (5th in the 50m and 200m butterfly), Lucy Walton, 15, (4th in the 800m freestyle), J.J. Robins, 11 (6 finals), Joe Whelan, 10, (4 finals), James Burns, 15 (3 finals).
Throughout three weekends of competition the club’s swimmers showed real competitive spirit at all levels, from those competing in their first major championship to the most experienced of swimmers. Numerous finals were reached, pb’s set, medals won and records broken all underlining the club’s continuing success.