Southwold Swimming Club

Mission accomplished? We finished second (only 3 points out of first) and will surely be at Millfield for the League 1 top 8 Final in the 50 metre (long course) pool. Promotion to the Premier League may be beyond us but this should be the third straight year at least that we have made the Final.

Our success is based on great team spirit. There were a number of swimmers who travelled to Newport to participate in just one relay. Their support, and that of their parents, is much appreciated by the Club. One such swimmer was Finn Lingham. He built on a good lead in his fly leg in the boys 11&U medley, enabling anchor man Dan Harding to coast home. One race for Finn; one win – perfect!

This young boys’ team has been strengthened immeasurably by the form of Jack Boulton who came second in his first ever individual race (50m breaststroke) at the Arena League.

Our younger girls had a better day too. Katie Pellow’s front crawl looked particularly strong with a big new PB. Esme Littlechild took on the arduous fly legs twice in her debut for us in the League, earning a new PB in the process.

Our elder girls were excellent as ever, starting right from the off with Maria Jones winning the Open 200 IM in a new club record time. Maria added freestyle first and second places to this win with two breaststroke first places for Jess Shaw and powerful fly swims from Emily Locke, including a win in the 15&U event. All three teamed up to win both their age group relays plus the Open medley – with a well-judged final leg from Amy Wilkins.

There were 13&U individual wins for Beth Cox and Georgie Locke as well as second place in both their relays alongside Georgie Lloyd and Morgan Creed.

The 13&U boys had to work doubly hard with Arno Turner and James Webb taking on two individual races each, Arno winning the 100 breast in a 3 second PB, while James (still only 12) brought home the 15&U medley team for a tight win.

With Ben Rawlins away, Henry Bennett’s workload was high, competing against some enormous boys in the 15&U category and some even bigger ones as he took a leg in the 6x50 Open free – some achievement for a 13 year old!

Overall, out of 50 events, we had no DQs and were in the top four in 41 races. Second place was never in doubt. The provisional final standings are: