22 Jan 2006 - Essex County Championships 2006
A capacity crowd watched the opening of this year's Essex County Swimming Championships at Blackshots Pool in Grays. The pool was equipped with its full electronic timing systems to cope with the split second finish excitement of the 50 meter sprint events.
Thurrock Swimming Club are defending the over all top club award which they have held for 2 years and fielded a full and very keen squad. None more so than 13 year old Robyn Turner from Tilbury who, on this weekend?s showing, collected her first two gold medals of many for the Freestyle (29.54) and Fly (32.89) events. Right behind her in the fly race was team-mate Georgie Hunt (32.98) who also went on to collect 4th place for Breaststroke (38.48) and backstroke (34.73).
Robyn and Georgie were also in action swimming the Ladies 4 x 50m Freestyle event joined by Brooke Turner and Daniella Nice. Seeded in 5th place the girls all put in spectacular swims to finish in the silver position in 4.09.46. Brooke also took a second individual silver for the ladies freestyle (28.56).
12 Year old Braden Wren from Orsett proved that he is coming back to his best form by winning the 50m Fly (32.73) together with a 5th place in the freestyle (30.61). And Samuel Ward aged 14 from Aveley also made light work of his fly event winning in 28.92 with Thomas Ingram from Grays in 5th place (29.68) . Sam collected silvers in backstroke (29.87) and freestyle (26.63).
The opening block of the Essex is a testing time for the clubs youngest swimmers taking part in their first county championships. This year, a whopping 13 Thurrock swimmers aged 10 or under qualified and each swam excellent races. Four of them, Amy Gore, Rebecca Hayes, Joe Brown and Katherine Stevens have qualified as 9 year olds and will swim in the same age group again next year. Meanwhile Bradley Clarke, Sonny Ford and Amy Beardwell Lacey, all aged 10 and from Grays, clocked up their first Essex finals with Sonny finishing 4th in Fly (38.03), Bradley finishing 5th in freestyle (34.67) and Amy collecting 6th place in backstroke (40.88).
Both 12 year old Megan Langridge and Kerriann Chipperfield swam National Times in 2005, and with Megan already a qualifier in 2006, her silver medal in the fly (33.43) was no surprise . Kerriann finished 6th in the fly (34.76) but took 2nd place in the Freestyle (30.87) with Megan taking 4th for backstroke (35.31).
Finally, the Thurrock Boys relay team of Sam Ward, Billy Tubbs, Rhys Mould and Thomas Ingram qualified for both finals finishing 5th in the freestyle (1.48.86) and 6th in the Medley.
The action now switches to longer events for the remaining three weekend long blocks, the final of which will be held at Blackshots on 25th and 26th March.
Thurrock Swimming Club are defending the over all top club award which they have held for 2 years and fielded a full and very keen squad. None more so than 13 year old Robyn Turner from Tilbury who, on this weekend?s showing, collected her first two gold medals of many for the Freestyle (29.54) and Fly (32.89) events. Right behind her in the fly race was team-mate Georgie Hunt (32.98) who also went on to collect 4th place for Breaststroke (38.48) and backstroke (34.73).
Robyn and Georgie were also in action swimming the Ladies 4 x 50m Freestyle event joined by Brooke Turner and Daniella Nice. Seeded in 5th place the girls all put in spectacular swims to finish in the silver position in 4.09.46. Brooke also took a second individual silver for the ladies freestyle (28.56).
12 Year old Braden Wren from Orsett proved that he is coming back to his best form by winning the 50m Fly (32.73) together with a 5th place in the freestyle (30.61). And Samuel Ward aged 14 from Aveley also made light work of his fly event winning in 28.92 with Thomas Ingram from Grays in 5th place (29.68) . Sam collected silvers in backstroke (29.87) and freestyle (26.63).
The opening block of the Essex is a testing time for the clubs youngest swimmers taking part in their first county championships. This year, a whopping 13 Thurrock swimmers aged 10 or under qualified and each swam excellent races. Four of them, Amy Gore, Rebecca Hayes, Joe Brown and Katherine Stevens have qualified as 9 year olds and will swim in the same age group again next year. Meanwhile Bradley Clarke, Sonny Ford and Amy Beardwell Lacey, all aged 10 and from Grays, clocked up their first Essex finals with Sonny finishing 4th in Fly (38.03), Bradley finishing 5th in freestyle (34.67) and Amy collecting 6th place in backstroke (40.88).
Both 12 year old Megan Langridge and Kerriann Chipperfield swam National Times in 2005, and with Megan already a qualifier in 2006, her silver medal in the fly (33.43) was no surprise . Kerriann finished 6th in the fly (34.76) but took 2nd place in the Freestyle (30.87) with Megan taking 4th for backstroke (35.31).
Finally, the Thurrock Boys relay team of Sam Ward, Billy Tubbs, Rhys Mould and Thomas Ingram qualified for both finals finishing 5th in the freestyle (1.48.86) and 6th in the Medley.
The action now switches to longer events for the remaining three weekend long blocks, the final of which will be held at Blackshots on 25th and 26th March.