Aquatics

Mount Kelly, Plymouth Leander, Dartmoor Darts and Devonport Royal all win national medals

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MOUNT Kelly, Plymouth Leander, Dartmoor Darts and Devonport Royal all returned home with gold medals from the British Summer Swimming Championships in Sheffield.

Mount Kelly enjoyed their best ever national championships and finished as the top club with 22 gold medals, 14 silvers and 16 bronze. They also had 117 finalists.

Great Britain junior internationals Matthew Ward, Hollie Widdows and Erin Little, who all impressed for their country at the recent European Junior Championships, led the way for Mount Kelly with multiple medals at Ponds Forge.

Ward claimed four individual golds, triumphing in the 17 years’ 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke events and the 200m IM. He clocked 25.66 seconds in the 50m back, 56.01 in the 100m back, 2:02.05 in the 200m back and 2:05.36 in the 200m IM.

Widdows claimed three golds, two silvers and a bronze in individual events and also featured in two medal winning relay teams.

Her individual golds came in the 16 years’ 200m freestyle (2:03.14), 50m butterfly (27.37) and 100m butterfly (1:00.63), while her silvers were achieved in the 50m freestyle (26.39) and 100m freestyle (57.09), while she claimed bronze in the 50m backstroke (30.30).

Little, competing in the 17 years’ age category, bagged two individual golds, two silvers and a bronze. She also claimed two relay silver medals.

Her golds came in the 50m freestyle (25.92) and 100m freestyle (56.41), while she picked up silvers in the 50m and 100m butterfly events and a bronze in 200m freestyle.

Youngster Abduljabar Adama was another star performer for Mount Kelly in South Yorkshire.  He claimed two individual golds and three silvers in the 13/14 years’ competition. He won the 50m and 100m freestyle and was runner-up in the 50m back, 100m butterfly and 50m butterfly events.

Fergus Thomson won two golds in the 15 years’ 100m and 200m backstroke events.

There were senior titles for Megan Barnes in the women’s 100m freestyle and Hazal Ozkan in the 100m breaststroke, plus golds for Amelia Riggott (18 years’ 50m breaststroke), Arun Oelkers (17 years’ 50m freestyle)and Jonathan Turck (16 years’ 200m freestyle).

Turck also claimed bronze medals in the 400m and 200m IM, while Ozkan took silver in the women’s 200m breaststroke and just missed out on a medal in the 200m IM where she did beat Sharron Davies’ long-standing school record.

Ella Bainbridge (18 years’ 200m butterfly), Sebastian Williams (MC 50m butterfly) and Bryden Byrne (15 years’ 200m back) all claimed silver medals for Mount Kelly, while Oliver Rowe (16 years’ 1,500m), Imogen Lambert (18 years’ 400m IM), Gabrielle Idle-Beavers (13/14 years’ 50m breaststroke), Chloe Skelt (17 years’ 50m breaststroke), Lotta Schulze (15 years’ 200m breaststroke), Sophie Brassington (16 years’ 200m breaststroke), Josephine Klein (17 years’ 50m freestyle), Riccardo Lucarelli (17 years’ 100m butterfly), Ruby Griffiths (16 years’ 400m freestyle), Alessandro D’Onofrio (13/14 50m freestyle) and Calvin Fry (18 years’ 50m freestyle) collected bronzes.

Mount Kelly also won six relay medals, including four gold.

Plymouth Leander returned home with 19 medals from Sheffield.

New Great Britain international para-swimmer Cameron Vearncombe had a successful meet and enjoyed a great rivalry with Paralympian Louis Lawlor.

Vearncombe came second in the 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke events before finally getting the gold he wanted in the 200m IM with a 2:15.23 swim.

Fellow international swimmer Sophie Freeman also claimed a gold for Leander at Ponds Forge.

She triumphed in the 18 years’ 200m butterfly in 2:15.26. She also took silver in the 100m butterfly in a time of 1:00.83) and was part of Leander’s women’s 4x200m freestyle bronze medal winning relay team.

James Hart won a silver for Plymouth in the 18 years’ 200m butterfly in 2:02.89, while Jacob Whibley bagged a silver in the 17 years’ 100m freestyle (51.42) and a bronze it the 50m event (23.71).

Wongsakorn Patsamarn (15 years’ 200m butterfly), Alma Dahl (17 years’ 50m butterfly) and Evangeline Belt (16 years’ 1,500m) also claimed silver medals for Leander.

Lacey Roberts picked up bronze medals in the 15 years’ 200m butterfly and 200m IM. She was also fourth in the 400m IM.

Ellie Kennington (15 girls’ 50m breaststroke), Elijah Kendrick (18 years’ 400m IM), Ella Turner (17 years’ 200m backstroke) and Thomas Trebilock (senior 800m) also went home with bronze medals. Trebilcock just missed out on also making the podium in the men’s 1,500m, where he finished fourth.

Dartmoor Darts’ Great Britain junior international Cameron Williams claimed two gold medals from the championships in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events. He won the 100m event out-right with a 1:03.45 swim, while he and Skipton’s Rohan Smith touched for exactly the same time in the 50m with a 29.09 swim.

Williams’ club team-mate Fritz Dietz just missed out on making the podium in the 18 years’ 50m backstroke where he came fourth in 26.21, which was just 0.1 of a second of a medal.

Devonport Royal para-swimmer Xander Harris triumphed in the MC 50m butterfly event in 36.74 seconds. He also claimed bronze in the MC 50m freestyle final.

Meanwhile, Mount Kelly’s Blythe Kinsman, who has also swam for Plymouth Leander, won a bronze medal for Great Britain in the girls’ 100m backstroke at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Banska Bystrica.

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