Chichester Cormorants make a major Sussex splash

Chichester Cormorants at the county championships

Jess Rayner was at the head of a list of excellent Cormorants performances.

Not only did Rayner bag silver in the 50m butterfly and bronze in the 100m butterfly, her performance also earned bronze in the overall junior championship. It ranks as one of the best ever results at counties by a Chichester swimmer.

Another excellent swim came from Adam Long, the club captain, who led by example in the 200m breaststroke. This punishing event forces racers to strike a tricky balance between outright speed and endurance, and Long judged his swim well to bag a bronze medal.

This, plus strong races in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, helped Long to fifth place in the overall final. In earlier years a result like that would have been a standout best for Cormorants – the fact that this year Long was vying with Rayner is a sign of the club’s increased strength and competitiveness.

The Cormorants squad of 17 swimmers entered 59 events and swam 33 personal-best times.

The future for Chichester’s swimmers looks bright, based on the swims of several first-time county competitors. Two of them even made finals: Sean Savage in the 12 years 50m breaststroke and Mia Clive in the 15 years 50m backstroke.

Other first-time qualifiers included Max Sydenham, who swam personal bests in three events. Florence Ingram and Eva Doubler, both aged just ten, also picked up priceless experience of high-level competition.

Cormorants head coach Darren Sims was delighted with how the swimmers had performed: “A record number of swimmers qualified to swim at counties this year, which shows how the club is improving overall.

“Once they got there, the qualifiers all put in maximum effort, as their results show. I feel very proud of all the work the swimmers put into their training and racing.”

Pictured: Front row from left: James Potts, Max Sydenham, Dylan Atkinson, Sean Savage, Florence Ingram, Eva Doubler, Lauren Smith; back row from left: Fraser Lyne, Olivia Spink, Seb Hadnett, Mia Clive, Adam Long, Jess Rayner, Broghan Collier.