Atlantis swimmers go medal mad at County Championships

The final weekend of events took place at the K2 in Crawley on March 18 and 19, and over the two days there were medals for the young Horsham swimmers across the age groups in all strokes and distances, as the club showed its all-round ability.

The weekend started early with the 400IM for the boys with James Hartley, 12, taking second and Andrew Kershaw, 14, coming eighth. From then on in the races kept producing personal best times, regional qualifying times, medals and finals .

There were many notable swims and performances from the youngsters with Ethyl Wyman, nine, winning the 50m back, 200m IM and 200m back.

Rebecca Barber, ten, won the 100m final. Max Windle, nine, Kian Cooke, ten and James North, 11, took medals to ensure the boys matched the girls.

In the nine-year old relays the girls took gold and the boys bronze in what was a very successful championships for the younger swimmers.

Kate Windle, 12, again produced a hatful of medals with gold in 50m back, silver in 100m IM , 200m back, 200m IM , 100m fly and bronze in 400m freestyle to add to her tally from the previous weekend.

Rose Stride, 12, took a well deserved gold in 400m free.

James Hartley seemed to be swimming all weekend and increased his medal tally with silvers in the 50m , 100m and 200m breastroke. Hamish Milne-Skillman, 12, added a bronze on 50m fly and Lauren Pedel,12 , bronze in 50m back.

Eleanor Morris, 14, had a very busy weekend, winning gold in 50m back, 100m IM, 200m IM and 200m back. A really successful county championships saw Eleanor win overall points competition for her age group .

Ella Windle, 14, took gold in the 400m free and 100m fly, as well as silver in 200m IM distance and Ed Hundleby, 13, won the 200m fly and a silver in 200m freestyle.

Ralph Hawkins, 13, took a silver in 50m breastroke. Yasmin Hooker, 14, continued her good form with a clutch of medals - a silver and three bronze medals - and Isobel Davis, 16, took two silver medals as well in the 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle.

Rebecca Lobley, 17, took the open championship in the 200m IM, adding this to the 100m and 200m Breastroke championship she had already won. This was an outstanding result for Bex, making her the first Atlantis swimmer to win three open championships in one year.

Head coach Bill Penny said: “Atlantis swimmers performed very well across all the ages and strokes and to deliver the number of medallists, finalists and huge number of PBs we did was a great achievement.”