************ ESSEX COUNTY CHAMPIONS 2008 ************

30 Mar 2008 - ESSEX COUNTY CHAMPIONS

Well Done

Thurrock Swimming Club

Essex Champions 2008

64 - Golds
50 - Silver
54 - Bronze
59 - 4th place
40 - 5th place
37 - 6th place

Thurrock swimming club were this week crowned Essex country age group swimming champions for the 3rd consecutive year.

The borough team beat off strong competition from 27 other Essex based swimming clubs and amassed what must be a near record number of points, over four weekends of intense competition. Team Thurrock 's dominance at this year’s championships was clearly evident in the final points table where Thurrock finished an incredible 587 points ahead of the 2nd place club.

The club also completed the competition with 6 overall individual age group winners, all of which were presented with individual awards by Essex County ASA President Fred Gale. The winners were: -

George Epsly, Boys 9 Years

Bobbie McCarthy, Boys 10 Years

Ryan Daniels, Boys 13 Years

Emma Cassidy, Girls 10 Years

Amy Gore, Girls 11 Years

Georgina Hunt, Girls 15 Years

Competitive swimming in Thurrock is at an all time high and with the solid infrastructure currently in place at the club, the success looks likely to continue.

Under the direction of Chief Coach Alex Morgan the club continues to go from strength to strength. Alex hailed the latest victory and praised all the swimmers and volunteers associated with the club. “The swimmers representing the club were a credit to their parents and the small group of volunteers who work so hard behind the scenes all year to make it happen. It is a very demanding sport and as we continue to see the only way to improve is with consistent training and intrinsic motivation”.

Club Secretary Phill Nice also paid tribute to the professionalism, hard work and effort of Chief Coach Alex Morgan and her team of assistant coaches and teachers. "These are the people who day by day are teaching our swimmers their immense skills but also instilling terrific work and team ethics which will stay with them and stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives".

The final block of the championships saw Thurrock swimmers produce some stunning displays in the gruelling 60 length 1500m event. Thurrock claimed an incredible 21 top 6 places in this event alone right across the 11 to 16 year age groups. In the 11 year age group Thurrock girls claimed 5 of the top 6 places. Katherine Stephens took gold ( 19:09 ), Rebecca Hayes silver ( 19:17 ), Georgia Mills bronze ( 19:41 ) with Melissa Cowell and Amy Gore taking 4^th and 6^th places respectively. Bradley Clarke won gold in the boys 12 year event ( 18:09 ) with Amy Beardwell-Lacey collecting 4^th place for the girls. In the 13 year age group, Emily Neal also claimed 4^th place while for the boys Ryan Daniels swam to 5^th place.

Medals in swimming’s longest event were also a plenty in the 14 year age group with Danielle Sayer taking silver (17:58) and Kerriann Chipperfield and Megan Langridge claiming 4^th and 5^th places respectively. The duo of Alex Delicata and Charlie Hayes flew the 1500m flag for the 14 year old boys with Alex taking the bronze (17:29) and Charlie collecting 5^th place. Molly Epsly and Charlotte Lamb dominated the distance event for the 15 year girls, with Molly taking gold and Charlotte the silver. Senior 15 year old boys, Conor Harrold and James Mitchell also swam magnificent races to claim and 4^th and 5^th places respectively in a high class field. Finally in the 16 years and over age group, Jessica Ford brought home the silver (17:42) with Shannon Harrold and Charlotte Delicata taking 4^th and 5^th places.

In other events, the 9 year old duo of George Epsly and Kieran Gore once again dominated their events. George swam to gold’s in the 200m fly and 200m back (both new county records) and Kieran took the silver in the 200m back and 4^th place in the 200m fly. The 10 year age group saw Emma Cassidy take gold in the 200m free, with Rose Merritt taking the bronze medal in the 200m fly. For the 10 year old boys, Salaam Motin claimed a new county record and gold medal in the 200m back to go with an impressive bronze in the 200m fly. Team mate Bobbie McCarthy swam to silver in the 200m fly and bronze in the 200m back.

Thurrock ’s clan of 11 year old girls also made a splash in other events with Katherine Stephens adding two gold (100m free, 200m back) and silver (100m back) to her ever growing selection of county medals. Top 11 year old girl Amy Gore added silver in the 200m free, while Rebecca Hayes swam to 4^th place in the 200m back as did Georgia Mills in the 100m free. Eleven year Joe Brown also tasted success, emulating his gold medal success in 2007 for the 200m fly. In the 12 year category Bradley Clarke swam to 2 bronze medals in the 200m breast and 200m free to add to 4^th place in the 100m breast.

Moving up to the 14 year age group, Kerriann Chipperfield put on show of power and strength to take the gold in the 100m fly, followed closely by Megan Langridge (3^rd) and twin sisters Abi and Dani Sayer (5^th and 6^th respectively). Dani then produced some class swimming of her own to take gold in the 200m back with Megan following closely in 3^rd to take her 2^nd bronze of the weekend. Strength and power was also shown in abundance by 14 year olds Charlie Hayes and Alex Delicata. Both had fantastic medal winning swims; Charlie taking silver in the 200m breast and Alex the bronze in the 200m free.

Molly Epsly, Georgina Hunt and Charlotte Lamb all added medals and valuable points in the girls 15 year age group. Molly increased her Block D gold medal tally to 2 by winning the 200m fly with Georgina following closely to take the silver. Georgina went on to add bronze medals in the 200m back and 200m breast while Charlotte took bronze in the 200m breast. Thurrock ’s medal winning performances continued right up to the senior age groups with Jessica Ford claiming gold in the 16 years and over 200m breast and Charlotte Delicata claiming bronze in the 200m back.

Darren Ford

April 2008