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Essex Block A (Saturday and Sunday 21st and 22nd January 2006)
For the first time in six years I missed the Essex County Championships Block A (all 50m individual races) competition - boy do I regret it!!. To be able to compete at County standard all swimmers from over 25 clubs in Essex have to be quicker than County Qualifying times - Harlow Penguins sent 23 swimmers who between them came back with a massive haul of medals (for 1st, 2nd or 3rd) and pennants (for 4th,5th or 6th).
Our swimmers won 9 individual GOLD medals, 2 SILVER medals, 5 BRONZE medals and 10 other PODIUM places (4th,5th or 6th). In addition our relay teams won 3 BRONZE medals and 2 PODIUM places.
Senner Koskocan was the star of the whole team with three individual Gold medals (back, breast and free) and a 5th place in 50m Fly. Matthew Walton and Ria Melvin both made there first ever appearances at County level and hopefully have come away with personal best times. All three swam in the 10yrs and under age category.
In the 11yrs section we had 5 swimmers with Chris Stevens the sole Gold winner in his favoured back stroke. Ryan Wolfe, Luke Marioni and Robyn Thompson swam extremely well but this time were outside medal places. Oliver Taffs swam his last time for Harlow Penguins and secured 5th in the 50m freestyle race before he joined close rivals Bishops Stortford (best of luck Oliver).
Our 12yr old swimmers were represented by Annie "man cough" Groome and Jenna Batorski. Annie secured a 2nd (50m back) and 3rd (50m fly) with Jenna winning 6th in the 50m breaststroke.
Alex Francey was our sole 13yrs representative. His best race was the 50m breaststroke were he came 7th and just missed the final by tenths of a second!!
Our 14yr old section saw Jodie Want, Ruby Groome and Tom Burley all final in different races. Jodie secured a 4th in 50m breaststroke, Ruby won 3rd in 50m back and 4th in 50m free with Tom getting a 3rd in 50m free and 4th in 50m fly. Special congratulations to Ruby who is the first Penguin to ever beat nemesis Rachael Leong (swims for Borough of Waltham Forest) in a 50m competitive race at County level - a feat I never thought I would see!!!
The 15yr section won a handful of Gold medals with Kaz Melvin coming first in the breaststroke and backstroke. Louis George also won the boys 50m backstroke race. Louise Kendall continued her glowing swimming career at the Penguins coming 3rd (Fly) and 5th (Free). Ever improving Craig Warwick never reached a final but improved significantly on recent years with his best performance in the 50m fly where he came 10th. Michael Healy made his first competitive swim for the Penguins with his best swim in the 50m breast where he came 11th.
In the 16yrs and over section Karl Batorski continued his excellent record at County level winning both the fly and backstroke races. A thigh injury forced Karl out of the rest of the competition where he would have most probably have gained more medals for the team and himself. Mark St Clare competed for the first time in this age group (which has extremely strong swimmers who can be 18, 19 or 20+ years old) and secured a very credible 5th in the 50m fly, surprisingly he did not get into the 50m breaststroke event???!!! Ian Edmans, who joined us from Epping in the summer, competed for the first time for us at County level with his best race was in the 50m free where he came 13th. Finally, our South African master swimmer Nicole Albertyn swam in the 50m free where she swam a decent sub 30 second race and came 9th.
Delighted coach Alan Mitchell was overawed by the weekend of swimming which produced some of the best results he had ever seen. As a club Alan was delighted to learn that the Penguins had finished third out of twenty six teams!!! Alan would love to see the swimmers finish better than 6th overall after all four weekends of swimming have been completed.
See here for all the times and final positions (this has been sent to Lesley to update PB database and see if any records were broken.
For a full breakdown of every competitor including NON Harlow Penguin swimmers - see here