Cormorants and Bognor swimmers on top form in county events

Some of the Bognor swimmers who made waves at Crawley

Teamwork and support was the order of the evening from the under-12s through to the masters, with swimmers displaying enthusiastic support for each other and producing excellent personal results.

Every member in the squad performed to their highest standard with the relay teams securing a number of first and second places.

There was outstanding swimming from Joe Jones, Sebastian Hadnett, Katie Thretheway, Jasmin Hang, Jessica Raynor, Felix

Talbot, Molly Whatmore, Edward Richardson, Charlotte White, Oscar Turner, Sam Hotchkiss, Jemima Laurence, Gus Haplick and Tom Maynard to name but a few.

Thanks and appreciation go to masters swimmers Jane West, Lisa Maynard, Kerrin Cruttenden and Darren Sims for competing and supporting and guiding the younger Cormorants.

The evening culminated with the squadron, always the highlight of the gala and on this occasion something that produced an electric atmopshere.

The swimmers and supporters raised the roof with Cormorants Jemima Laurence, Amber Hook, Molly Whatmore, Katie Threthewey,

Gus Haplick, Joseph Barnett, Edward Richardson and Darren Sims producing superb swims to secure first place. This was a well-deserved success with all involved raising their game and concluding the gala in superb style.

The achievements and results of the swimmers reflect the commitment, dedication and hard work of the coaching team at Chichester Cormorants.

If anyone is interested in joining a friendly yet competitive swimming club who welcome all ages, contact the coaching team at [email protected]

Meanwhile, the final weekend of the Sussex championships in Crawley brought another set of excellent results for Bognor Swimming Club members.

The meet was open only to children and young adults who had previously achieved the qualification time in one or more of the four swimming disciplines.

Clubs and individual swimmers from across East and West Sussex participated and Bognor swimmers notched a number of personal bests and podium finishes.

Perhaps the most impressive results saw Archie Strowger, nine, and Abbie Turner, 13, who were second and third respectively in their age groups. Hopefully, both will now represent Sussex in regional competitions and possibly even the National League. They should find out later in the year.

Turner added a gold and three bronzes to her previous haul of six medals at the championships. Remarkably, she reached the final of every event she had qualified for: nearly 20 individual events.

Her gold was in the 400m freestyle event. After a solid start, she took the lead at the 150m point and never looked back, smashing her personal best by four seconds-plus. In all, Turner achieved a further five personal bests.

Strowger, who also qualified for the final of every event he entered, came second in the 200m freestyle. He reduced his personal best by 24 seconds but missed gold by less than a second.

Mum Donna said: “I held my breath for the last 50m, swimming every stroke with Archie. It was so close, particularly the first 250m, but in the end he just didn’t have enough energy left to get gold.”

He also took bronze in the 50m freestyle event for nine to 11-year-olds.

Olivia Spink, nine, was the third swimmer from Bognor who qualified for every final she entered. In the 200m individual relay, she narrowly missed out on bronze as a fantastic breaststroke leg brought her back into contention. She reduced her personal best by ten seconds.

Sam Hawkins, competing in the 12-year-old category, gained three PBs, and a podium finish in the 200m butterfly. His second place was achieved with a two-second reduction in his best time.

Emily Guiry, 12, achieved four personal bests at the event.

Not to be outdone by the youngsters, some of the older swimmers achieved fantastic results.

Sam Webb, 20, managed one of each medal. He won a hotly-contested 100m breaststroke, while in the 50m breaststroke, he missed out on gold by 0.03 seconds.

His bronze swim in the 100m breaststroke - this time in a 50m pool rather than a 25m pool - completed a successful tournament for him.

Anna Turner, 15, achieved two personal bests at the tournament, with Jazmine Day, 17, achieving a season best’s time in the 200m backstroke and George Laney, 20, narrowly missing a place in the 16-and-over 50m freestyle final.