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HHarlow Penguins Swimming Club

National Speedo Round 2 (Saturday 8th November) - Report

A tired squad of Harlow Penguins returned late from Ipswich, via Clacton thank you very much Mr. Coach Driver, after swimming fantastically against five extremely tough swimming squads from Harrow & Wealdstone, Teddington, Cheshunt, Hillingdon and hosts Ipswich. Such is the caliber of swimmers that Commonwealth Gold medalist, Karen Pickering, took on Kate Burley in the 100m freestyle and narrowly won.

Harlow Penguins were up against all teams that had either won their previous round or came second or third. As such this was the toughest gala the Penguins had ever competed in since Alan "throw my clipboard in the water" Mitchell had taken over as Club Coach. Both Alan and Ken were over the moon with our fifth place beating Cheshunt, who came sixth,  by almost 30 points!!.  

Harlow Penguins were in the running for fourth place upto event 41 but Teddington (they come from Heathrow)  had strength in depth and pulled away in the relay races achieving a well deserved fourth place of 152 points whilst we secured 137 points.

Find here a full list of individual splits, results and race positions. We won three races outright, were second in four but only had one disqualification.

The winners were Cyd 13u 100m  fly, Karl 15u 100m breast and the fantastic foursome of Oliver, Karl, Chris and Joel who easily beat fancied Ipswich and everyone else in the 15u 4x50m freestyle relay.  Our second place swimmers were Karl Open 200IM, Alex 10-11yrs 50m fly, Karl open 100m breast and the young team of Oliver Taffs, Alex Francey, Karl Sims and Harry Newman who secured 2nd in the 9-11yrs 4x50m freestyle relay - well done boys!!!

Special mention for Jodie Want (12) who at the last moment agreed to swim in the Ladies Open 100m backstroke. Such unselfish behaviour runs right through our club and gave us another vital point.

Finally, Karen Pickering was very gracious to put up with our younger swimmers who all seem to have badgered her for autographs.

Thanks to Eric (Umpire), Max (timekeeper), Alan and Ken (coaches), Dean (splits), Carol (Girls team manager), Holly (cheerleader) and our loyal parent fans for making this a success as usual. See you all again on Saturday 13th December when we swim the third and final round in this years National Speedo.