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Junior Speedo M11 League, Round 1 The Junior Speedo league in 2009 started last weekend with Harlow Penguins able to compete in all 49 events. It was wonderful to see so many novice swimmers participating in this gala for the first time. The 9 year olds started very well, the girls freestyle relay team came 2nd, our highest event position and the boys freestyle relay team came 4th. This was followed by an excellent performance by Erin Fitzpatrick coming 3rd in the 25m freestyle and Xavier Palas-Cuniah coming 4th in his 25m freestyle. With Emily Poolman coming 4th in her 25m breaststroke it was clear we have some very promising 9 year olds. Eloise Mackown and Saige Middlecott completed their individual events and the girls came together for their medley relay, coming a respectable 4th. Simon Kolarik, Luke Withers and Filip Kusnir completed their individual events and then joined up with Xavier in the medley relay. Our 9 year old girls had a very tiring gala as they had to swim up into the 10 year olds to join Darci Berry in the girls 10 year old age group. This was a tough challenge and there were some very tired limbs towards the end. The 10 year old boys have come together as a great relay team. Magnus Koskocan, Bradley Veitch, Frankie Dutton and Samuel Kolarik came 4th in their medley relay and 3rd in their freestyle relay. All these boys also performed well in their individual events, with Bradley doing a 3 second PB in 50m breaststroke and Magnus knocking 5 seconds off his 50m backstroke time. Our 11 year old girls, Jasmine Hind, Tia Brown, Madison Middlecott and Chloe Scott faced some tough opposition in their events, particularly the relays. Individually there were some impressive performances, Tia did a 7 second PB in the 50m backstroke to come 4th, Jasmine knocked 2 seconds off her 50m butterfly time. Our 11 year old boys have a solid team of Luke Sears, Mason Arnold, Joseph Walker and Joel Chan. A great team effort with notable individual performances from Luke Sears with a 6 second pb in the 50m butterfly and Mason swimming a 34 second 50m freestyle. The toughest age group is the 12 year olds. Many of the other teams comprised county swimmers, but Harlow Penguins boys and girls gave them tough opposition. Our 12 year old girls had the experience of Tori Koskocan (captain) and the exciting debut of Dana Pittman and Kimberley Oakman together with 11 year old Jasmine Hind joining them in the relays. These girls never gave up and show great potential. Luke Guerrati (captain)was our only available 12 year old boy, he set about knocking seconds off his individual performances in the 50m Butterfly (3 second pb) and 50m backstroke ( 1 second pb). He was joined by 11 year olds Luke Sears, Joseph Walker and Mason Arnold in the relays. The final results: Rochford 219, Camden Swiss Cottage 216.5 Enfield 179.5 Harwich 169 Eltham Stingrays 126 Harlow Penguins 91 Despite coming 6th in round 1 we still achieved far more points than any of the rounds in 2008 and we have gained valuable experience for the next two rounds. With some great young swimmers participating in their first ever swimming gala the future is an exciting one for Harlow Penguins and their coach Carmen Byfield. The next round is in less than 2 weeks, 10th May at Barnet Copthall, 4.30 warm up. Carmen and I will get together this week to finalise the team selection. A huge thanks to the three older club members, Amy Sears, Vikki Malcolm and John Reynolds who worked tirelessly all afternoon and were brilliant at organising the team members. Thank you also to Cathy Sears (timekeeper), Jonathan Chan (timekeeper) Nicola Arnold (Judge) Claire Wilson (split timekeeper) Carmen Byfield (coach) and the parents who cheered the swimmers on from the Spectators Area. Anne Reynolds Team Manager |
Swimmers' times (MS Excel file) |