Double Medal Winners at the South East Championships - 10-11-2009

Swimmers from Sevenoaks Swimming Club were this weekend competing in the South East Region Winter Championships held at Aldershot.

A team of 10 swimmers, recently returned from a week’s training camp in Italy, had met the stringent qualifying times for the South East Championships, the largest of the UK’s competitive regions.

James Manning swam an impressive 100m freestyle, hitting the 55 second mark for the second time, while also making his mark in the 50m and 200 events. Eliott Neale was equally strong in 100m freestyle, setting a new personal best time of 56.48 short course.

James Mcauliffe swam a new personal best time in 100m butterfly in 1 min 04 seconds, while Max Wallis and Katie Hoskins were impressive in the 50m sprints in butterfly and breaststroke respectively.

On particularly impressive form was 17 year old Natasha Hickey who swam an impressive heat in the 50m freestyle before winning bronze in the final in 27.25 seconds, while Xander Alari-Williams took gold in the 200m breaststroke – winning by over 5 seconds on his rivals.

Club coach Julian Metcalf, who accompanied the team, was impressed with his swimmers performances. ‘There was a very large number of personal best times set which is excellent as we’ve just spent a week intensive training abroad and many of the swimmers are still feeling the effects of that.’

‘Above all, there were aspects of races that I was particularly pleased with – notable James McAuliffe’s fly and Holly Miles’ work on starts and turns in the freestyle. Moreover, the South East is a particularly competitive region, so to walk away with two medal winners is just superb.’

Full results are available on