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HH

Round 2 Glory at Hatfield (13th November 2004)

24 Harlow Penguin swimmers proudly out swam three super London teams claiming an unexpected but well deserved, hard thought third place. The swimmers were told on the short trip to Hatfield that there was an expectation that they should come at least 5th with 4th being a bonus. However the third place was richly deserved and all the swimmers are a credit to the club.

Teams from Wandsworth, Shiverers and Edmonton looked on in disbelief as the mighty Harlow Penguins time after time beat them in race after race. Only the two top teams, eventual winners Hillingdon and second place Ipswich, could match Harlows efforts and determination. Our swimmers were warned that disqualifications were not acceptable and as such there were none!! 

Our small team suffered in the final three races as I have never known us to come last in both the Open relays and the boys 15 & u medley relay but it was to be expected with some swimmers having swam 8 races! It is unfair to pick out swimmers for this report but the following did gain individual first places: Karl Batorski (open 200IM and open 100m breast), Kaz Melvin (13\u 100m breast and 15\u 100m breast) and Sam Blunt (open 100m back). We also got 5 individual seconds and two relay seconds (well done girls u13 relay teams - Jodie, Kaz, Cyd and Ruby).

A special mention to Ryan Budd who was my swimmer of the night. Not normally in the limelight Ryan swam an awesome 50m backstroke leg ( in the boys 13&u medley relay) with a particularly impressive turn on the 25m mark - you don't have to necessarily win a race to be noticed!!! Well done Ryan.

Club Coach Alan Mitchell missed the gala while celebrating the birth of his new grandchild in Manchester. Nevertheless he will definitely be proud of them all. Click    for all the times, positions and splits.