Local swimming club RTW Monson rounded off a successful season by scoring a huge medal haul at the recent British Summer Championships and Swim England National Meet, both at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
These are the final two swimming events of the season and part of the swimming structure in Great Britain whereby the top ranked swimmers are invited to compete at the British Summer Championships. The next ranked swimmers at Swim England affiliated clubs, or who have chosen to be ranked as English, are invited to compete at the English Summer Nationals. Across both meets, there were 27 RTW Monson swimmers competing.
At the British Championships, 17-year-old Hayden Annan kicked things off winning bronze in the 800m freestyle, where he touched the wall in a time of 8.22.40. Soon afterwards, RTW Monson’s newest British Champion was crowned, with Amalie Smith dominating the 15 years 200m IM and comfortably earning the gold medal. Later in the week Hayden tackled the 400m freestyle, where he managed to dip under the four-minute barrier for the first time, recording 3:59.39 and taking home the silver medal. He was also awarded the silver medal in the 200 freestyle.
As the week progressed, showing her diversity, toughness and class, Amalie Smith won the gold in both the 400m IM and 50m backstroke finals. The 400m IM was an outstanding race which saw Amalie swim a new personal best time of 4:49.11, faster than anyone else in the event of any age, and still at only 14 years old! She went on to finish second in the 200m and 400m freestyle, before rounding off an incredible Championships, which saw her clock up a total of 25 races and 12 finals, by claiming the silver in the 100m Butterfly and taking RTW Monson’s medal haul to five golds, six silvers and two bronze at the British Championships.
Callie-Ann Warrington, 23, continued her preparation in the run up to the Paris Paralympics, competing in the Multi-classification (MC) 100m freestyle, where she managed to lower her personal best time to 61.67 and amass the most points to claim the gold. She went on to compete in the MC 50m freestyle, narrowly missing out of the British record for the S10 category by 0.03 seconds, but securing first place. We look forward to seeing Calle-Ann racing at the Paralympics in Paris on the first and third of September, where she has been selected to swim in 100 freestyle and 100 fly respectively.
Chengze Duan, 17, swam in the 17 years 100m butterfly, which saw an extremely controversial start. Movement on the blocks meant a very long hold, but Chengze stormed out down the first 50 metres, enough to hold on for the silver.
A week later, 13-year-old Julia Elvidge took centre stage at the Swim England meet, earning herself the gold medal for 100m backstroke by lowering her personal best to 1.07.19 after a nail-biting last 25m to touch the wall first. She went on to take home the silver medal in the 200m Individual Medley, before adding a bronze to her growing collection in the 100m freestyle event, where she sliced over four seconds off her best time, and overall taking home three medals.
Two other medallists came in the form of Aubry Armada Bennett, 16, who collected a well-deserved bronze medal in the 400m Individual Medley, lowering his personal best by over 15 seconds in a massive swim. And 17-year-old Hannah Murphy, who found herself behind at the 150m mark of the 200m backstroke final. Storming down the last length, Hannah touched the wall two seconds clear of her nearest rivals to claim the gold medal in a new personal best time of 2:20.99, a drop of four seconds.
Adding to the RTW medal count was Denys Mialkovskyi, 17, who claimed silver in the 100m freestyle, in a new personal best time of 53.02. And 15-year-old Maddie Hind swimming in the 200m IM final took a commanding lead at the 100m mark, battling through to take the gold medal in a new personal best time of 2:27.19.
RTW Monson’s medal collection from the English meet was three golds, two silvers and two bronze.
Head coach Adam Naylor said, “It’s been a long two weeks of competitions and our swimmers have conducted themselves with courage and character throughout. A huge congratulations to all of the athletes, and a big thank you must also go to all of the coaches for their hard work throughout the season.”
- RTW Monson is a family friendly, inclusive swimming club, offering swimming for all, including those learning to swim, swimming for fitness and who want to compete, as well as water polo. RTW Monson Swimming Club welcomes new members across all programmes. Go to rtwmonson.org to find out more.
