Short course championships success for York City Baths Club (From York Press)

Short course championships success for York City Baths Club

8:00am Saturday 17th December 2011 in Junior sports By Peter Martini, peter.martini@thepress.co.uk

York City Baths Club can now boast four new North East champions following the region’s swimming association’s short course championships held at the Aquatics Centre, Sunderland.

The versatility of the facility, providing two separate 25-metre pools, allowed both the open and age group championships to take place simultaneously.

And, from a squad of 20 York swimmers who qualified to compete against the best from clubs across the North East, a total of 105 swims yielded 59 personal best times, 13 final appearances in the senior and junior galas and seven gold medals shared by the champion quartet.

In the senior championships, James Wilby won both the 100 metre and 200m breaststroke events, and added a bronze in the 50m sprint.

There were also silver medals for Bradley Swainston, in the 50m backstroke, and for Sarah Lambert, in both the 50m and 100m backstroke events.

A further seven final places, including four for the consistent Sam Rainton, saw the junior and senior swimmers come home with 25 personal bests out of 51 swims.

Mention must also be made of Swainston’s time of 57.95 seconds in the 100m backstroke final. Though only fourth in the race, it was a national qualifying time.

In the age group competition, York City Baths Club had three champions.

In the 11-year-old girls’ competition, Lucy Nicholson won the 200m butterfly, as well as collecting two bronze medals in the 100m butterfly and 400m individual medley and enjoying three top-ten finishes in her other swims. She ended fourth in the overall age group competition.

In the 13-year-old girls’ competition, Freya Beck won the 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle events, took silvers in the 100m backstroke and 200m and 800m freestyle and was tenth in the 100m freestyle.

However, Annie Johnston was the club’s top performer at this level.

She posted medal places in all her seven events giving her first place in the overall age group competition.

Johnston won gold medals in the 100m and 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley.

She also bagged silvers in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and 100m butterfly, and bronze in the 200m butterfly.

Carrie Suddes, 12, won silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m breaststroke, and had a further top-ten finish.

Sam Russell’s perseverance saw him achieve fifth place in the overall ten-year-old boys’ age group competition, although he missed out on medals, and there were other top-ten finishes for Genna Suddes (4), Katarina Bonner, Sam Russell (7), Jonathon White and Alistair Mitchell (2) – the nine age group swimmers achieving 34 PBs out of their 54 swims.

Further information about York City Baths Club is available at www.ycbc.org.uk

Anyone interested in swimming with the club can email ycbc.enquiries@googlemail.com.