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Stand up for the Champions!!!
Essex League Round 2 (18th February 2006)
A large contingent of proud parents stood and cheered the mighty Harlow Penguins when they achieved first place in this evenings Essex League match against teams from Harwich, Clacton, Braintree and Waltham Forest. In fact from the 3rd race Harlow Penguins took the lead and we were never caught!!
The evening started chaotically when I realised that I was using a completely different programme to that which was to be swam. nevertheless after a hectic 15 minutes our programme was rewritten with our swimmers competing fantastically for every race, not getting a single disqualification and rarely coming last out of the 5 competing teams.
There are too many individual and relay winners to mention therefore for the first ever time we will mention every swimmer tonight as they were all great competitors and ambassadors for the club. Well done to :-
Ria Melvin, Amelia Dimmock, Victoria Malcolm and Sadie Clifton
Luke Marioni, Ryan Wolfe, Senner Koskocan and John Reynolds
Robyn Thompson, Annie Groome, Jenna Batorski and Emily Sutton
Chris Stevens and Adam Dunkley
Ruby Groome
Harry Newman, Alex Francey and Ryan Budd
Nicole Albertyn, Kaz Melvin and Louise Kendall
Mark St Clare, Michael Healy, Matt Cooper and Craig Warwick
Out of the 49 races we came first 22 times, we came second 12 times, third 8 times, fourth 3 times and fifth only 4 times. We were never disqualified and our new mascot "Bob" the 5 and a half foot Penguin cheered us on in the final race when we won the squadron relay (8x 25m freestyle) in convincing style. As you can see from the team above many swimmers had to compete in age groups 2 or more years older than themselves - in particular well done to Chris Stevens (11 yrs old) who came 3rd in the u15 100m backstroke race. We only put young swimmers into older races when we have faith in them and know they have faith in themselves.
Two other fine swims to mention in a night of excellent competition is that of Adam Dunkley who has been with the club for less than a year but has now progressed so much that he is comfortable to compete in the 50m fly and also to Ryan Budd who surprised every one, but of course not himself, with an excellent 2nd placing in the u15 100m breaststroke much to the pleasure of his Mum who watched a gala for the first ever time!
Final positions: Mighty Harlow Penguins (1st 245 points), Waltham Forest (2nd 205 points), Clacton (3rd 203 points), Braintree & Bocking (4th 163 points) and Harwich (5th 138 points).
Find here a list of all the times and positions. Many apologies but as I had written my original programme wrongly I did not have time to rewrite two programmes and therefore we do not have any split times - this wont happen again.
Finally, we hosted this gala at Fullwell Cross (cheaper than Harlow Pool) and as such we have many thanks to give for those people who gave up their time so our swimmers could compete. Janis and Carmen at the door collecting monies, Anne and Gill recording results, Paul our announcer, Eric my sole official and also the starter, Dean who was our timekeeper, Carol who was the Coach for all starts and Head Coach Alan Mitchell who talked to each swimmer individually advising and reviewing their races. Also big thanks to Wendy and Sharon for keeping us all fully supplied with nice cold drinks.