9:32am Thursday 17th July 2008
Colchester Swimming Club members excelled at the recent Essex Open Braintree Pool Shakedown' Meet.
Four of the youngsters did incredibly well to make it through to the 100 metres and 200m girls/boys' individual medley (IM) super finals, made up from the eight fastest swimmers from the heats - regardless of age.
They were Karl Roberts, Tom Vickers, Paige Young and Gemma Wass.
Vickers, 13, was outstanding to win three gold medals in his age group heats of the 100m, 200m and 400m IM, a bronze in the 400m freestyle and two bronze medals in the super finals.
Roberts, 14, was also on fine form to take two silver medals in the super finals as well as silver medals in the two heats in his age group and a bronze in the 400m freestyle.
Young, 13, swam superbly to victory in the 400m freestyle in her age group and also picked up silver in the 200m IM and two bronzes in the 100m and 400m IM.
She took a silver and bronze in the super finals.
Wass, 13, achieved fourth position in the 100m IM in her age group and swam well to take the same place in the super final. Other swimmers on great form at this event were 11-year-old Jim Vickers, who won his 200m IM heat as well as a second and third in the 400m IM and freestyle respectively.
Megan Boyden, 11, won her 200m IM heat and also took third place in the 100m IM and 400m freestyle.
Ten-year-old Matthew Parsons was victorious in his age group heat of the 400m freestyle.
Alex Carter, 11, achieved two third positions out of his four races.
Katharine-Jayne Watts, ten, picked up a second place in her three swims, while her team-mate in the same age group, Phoebe Coles, also came away with a second-place medal in the 100m IM.
Eleven-year-olds Damien Green, Charlotte Marven and Helena Wright all swam strongly over long-distance races in their age group heats and, in the 12-year-old-age group, Joanne Illidge, Madeleine Smith and Charlotte Wingar also worked hard in their events.
Meanwhile, a handful of swimmers from Colchester - sponsored by Griffin Chapman - travelled to Norwich for this year's ASA East Region Championships.
Jim Vickers, 11, qualified in five events and swam strongly in each one, particularly the 100m backstroke, in which he achieved tenth place in his age group.
Alice Insull, ten, also swam extremely well at her first regional event, taking tenth place in her 100m backstroke event. In the same age group, Matthew Parsons competed in three events and worked very hard in all of them.
Other competitors who qualified and swam at this meeting were Thomas Illidge, ten, (200m backstroke), 11-year-olds Danielle Hall (200m freestyle) and Ellie Tripp (100m freestyle) and 12-year-old Christopher Palmer.
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