Over the past few years, Sunderland has laid down a tradition of achieving outstanding performances at the Scottish National Short Course Championships, held at Edinburgh’s Commonwealth pool. This year’s performance was no exception!  The penultimate competition of the short course season for Sunderland’s Performance Squad swimmers saw the club win two medals, break four county records and a staggering twenty-six club records and set many new personal bests.
Freya Rayner, 17, won two silver medals in the finals of the 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle, and swam in three ‘B’ finals. Her time of 28.06 seconds in the 50m backstroke, not only gave her a silver medal but broke the Northumberland and Durham (N&D) County record and set a new age group club record. The 50m freestyle event saw Freya claim her second medal of the championships, finishing second with a time of 25.19 – a new club age group record. Freya broke another age group club record, finishing first in the ‘B’ final of the 100m freestyle in 55.52 seconds and finished second in the ‘B’ final of the 100m backstroke and fourth in the ‘B’ final of the 50m butterfly events.
The club’s other county record breaker of the weekend was Adam Taylor, 19, who set new N & D records in the 100m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly events and just missed out on podium places. The 100m butterfly event saw Adam finish fifth in the final in 53.06 seconds. He was fourth in the final of the 50m backstroke in 24.93 seconds and broke his own county record in the heat of the 50m butterfly event with a time of 23.95 seconds, finishing fourth in the final in 24.09 seconds. These times also broke the club’s All Time records. Adam claimed two more All Time club records with his performances in the 100m backstroke, finishing fourth in the final in 54.03 seconds and in the 100m butterfly final where he finished fifth in 53.06 seconds. The 50m freestyle event saw Adam qualify for the ‘B’ final where he finished seventh with a time of 23.45 seconds.
Zak Logue, 17, broke seven club records during the course of the weekend and qualified for three finals. Specialising in the distance and I/m events, Zak’s best result came in the 1500m freestyle where he finished in fifth place in 15:39.11 minutes yet breaking the Age Group and All Time club records. The 400 I/M saw Zak qualify for the A final where he finished eighth in 4:25.37 minutes to take the club’s Age Group and All Time records.  Qualifying for the B final of the 400m freestyle, Zak finished second and broke the club’s Age Group and All Time records with a time of 3:54.67. He wrapped up a successful weekend of competition with a new club record in the 100 I/M, finishing second in the B final in 58.68 seconds.
Reaching A finals were: Emma Cassell, 17, Jodi Bunker,16, and Rachel Taylor, 15. Emma qualified for the A final of the 200m butterfly where she finished fifth. Her time of 2:15.61 broke the club’s Age Group and All Time Club records. In the shorter event, she finished fourth in the B final where her time of 1:02.52 broke the club’s 100m butterfly Age Group and All Time records. Jodi recorded a great performance in the 200m butterfly, finishing in sixth place in the A final in 2:16.25. In the 400 I/M event, Jodi finished second in the B final in 4:57.98 and broke the Age Group club record for the 100 I/M with a time of 1:06.87. Rachel finished eighth in the A final of the 100m breaststroke, claiming the club’s Age Group record with a time of 1:11.46 from the heat. Rachel also finished eighth in the A final of the 200m breaststroke finishing in 2:35.83 minutes.
Joseph Pomfret, 15, and Blanka Kelecsenyi, 13, were both on top form, breaking two club records each. Joseph recorded significant PBs in all of his six events. He broke the Age Group club record in the 200m butterfly with a time of 2:12.48 broke the Age Group club record in the 400 I/M finishing in 4:43.11. His split time for the100m butterfly event equalled the Age Group club record for the 50m distance with a time of 28.73 seconds. With a five second PB in the 200 I/M, Joseph just missed out on another club record, finishing in 2:14.72. The 400m freestyle saw him reduce his time by 12 seconds to 4:11.69 and he reduced his 200m backstroke time by five seconds to 2:12.04. Blanka set new Age Group club records in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events. She finished in 34.39 in the 50m event and 1:16.01 in the 100m event.
Club records were also broken by Kieran Peart, 18 and Elizabeth Clements, 15. Kieran broke the Age Group record in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 30.78. He also achieved PBs in all his other events with the exception of the 50m freestyle where he was just 1/100th of a second outside his PB! He did qualify for the B final of this event where his time of 23.39 seconds placed him sixth. Elizabeth swam an excellent 100m I/M to break the Age Group club record with a time of 1:09.21. She also achieved PBs in the 200m and 400m I/M, the 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle events.
Joshua Campbell, 18, Mason Jaques, 17 and Anya Sordy, 16 all qualified for B finals. Joshua set new PBs in each of his five events. He qualified for the B final of the 200m breaststroke where he finished 8th. His heat time of 2:25.95 was a five second PB. In the 200 I/M he set a six second PB with a time of 2:16.30. Mason also recorded five PBs in six events. He reached the B final of the 50m backstroke where he finished sixth with a time of 26.73 seconds. Anya continued the successful theme, setting PBs in five of her six events and reaching the B final of the 200m butterfly where she finished fifth in 2:21.54.
Amy Henshaw, 16, Alexandra Clements, 16 and Jay Manners, 16 completed the squad. Amy finished ninth in the 800m freestyle in 9:09.11. She also set a six second PB in the 200m freestyle with a time of 2:10.45 and set new PBs in the 200m butterfly and 200m backstroke events. Alexandra achieved a huge PB in the 200m backstroke of more than ten seconds to finish in 2:21.49. She also set a new PB in the 50m freestyle event of 27.82.  Jay, competing in his first national event had to wait until the third day of competition to compete but made it worthwhile by finishing the 400 I/M in 4:52.41, a six second PB.
The club performed well in the relay events, with the best results coming in the women’s 200m medley relay and 400m freestyle relay where the A teams finished fourth in both events and in the women’s 200m freestyle relay where the A Team finished sixth. The men finished seventh in the 200m freestyle relay and 400m freestyle relay and ninth in the 200m medley relay.
Without exception all 16 of Sunderland’s swimmers recorded new PBs and swam their best. The overall tally of medals, county and club records was, without doubt, hard earned and well deserved.