Two fast moving galas brought the A squad home in an amazing 2nd place and the B squad in a fantastic 1st place.  A truly huge step forward for the club, on one momentous evening.

In Canterbury, the A squad had some new challenges facing them, with a 200m f/s swim and 100m IM’s for some ages, swimmers limited to 2 individual swims meant each age group needed a full 4 member team.  The evening was kicked off by a magnificent 200m f/s from 13 year old Philippa Cochran and an easy win, she also went on to win her 100m b/s and make her National Qualifying time.  Other excellent wins came from 10 year old Fred Biggs in the 50 b/k and 10 year old Alex Tucker in the 50 b/s, two boys with very exciting swimming careers ahead of them.  There were first place team swims from the 11 year old girls Medley relay, Lucy Pigott, Maddy Smith, Fenella Keevil and Paige Stapleton, 12 year old boys Freestyle relay, Paddy Maclachlan, Henry Thwaite, Ben Van Leeuwen and Joe Choong and 13 year old girls free relay, Caroline Gloyne, Emily Cast, AJ Airey and Philippa Cochran.  In most of the other races Sevenoaks swimmers came 2nd and 3rd and were only beaten into 2nd place by Kent Top Club Beckenham.
Final results were;
Beckenham 274, Sevenoaks 227, Canterbury 201, RTW Monson 170 and Bexley 151.

Full A squad were; Jess Guy, Cecilia Fenner, Zoe Harding, Molly Merson
Fred Biggs, Dan Moss, Alex Tucker, Greg Roberts
Paige Stapleton, Maddy Smith, Fenella Keevil, Lucy Pigott
Alex Robbins, Hamish Wyatt, Ben Bovington-Key
Emily Skinner, Rebecca Pearce, Gabby Norris, Georgina Aitchison, Ben Van Leeuwen, Joseph Choong, Paddy Maclachlan, Henry Thwaite
Philippa Cochran, Caroline Gloyne, AJ Airey, Emily Cast
Angus Wyatt, Leandre Stevens, Rhys Knapman                  

In Sheerness, the B squad was a new and inexperienced team competing in the league for the first time.  There were some fabulous winning swims from Lauren Goodchild in the 100m b/k, achieving a Kent Qualifying time and also her 100m f/s.  Jessica Farrow and Hannah Thom in the 100m fly.  Also, Katie Boughton in the 100m b/s and Lindsay Sawyer in the 100m b/k.   Elsa Cameron and Ellen Willumsen were just beaten into 2nd places in their 100m f/s and 25m fly respectively.  All the relays came in 1st or 2nd place which is a true indication of the strength of the team on the night.
Final results were;
Sevenoaks 231, Larkfield 228, Gravesend and Northfleet 126, Beechfield 119

Full B squad were; Molly Payne, Ellen Willumsen, Ellen Benn, Nathalie Bailey
Hugo Caven, Max Montaner-Willis, Barney Sandeford, Harry Knox 
Victoria Bee, Sophie Maunder, Vita Bateman-White, Chloe Rouse
Callum Joyner, Joseph O’Brien, Mark Goodchild, Alex Van Leeuwen
Jess Farrow, Elsa Cameron, Sophie Simpson, Lindsay Sawyer
Alexander Hill, Sam Margiotta, Lewis Roberts
Lauren Goodchild, Hannah Thom, Katie Boughton
Lexi Sandeford, James Cunnington, Elliott Rouse   
       

Sevenoaks swimming club had another fantastic year at the County Championships, beating their previous bests and upgrading their image at the same time! 14 gold medals 15 silver medals 12 bronze medals 15 4th place 15 5th place 24 6th place
With new polo shirts and hats the 40 strong team were in great form over the 3 weekends of competition.	Overall BAGCAT winner in 10 year old boys – Alex Macaulay

The whole championships were kicked off by a fabulous win by Emily Skinner in the 11 years 100m backstroke, closely followed by Xander Alari-Williams and Alex Macaulay in their 200m and 50m breastroke races and 100m IM swims, a very exciting first weekend for the two boys with Xander setting an Event Best Performance, EBP in the 50m.  Philippa Cochran won the 200m, 100m and 50m breastroke over the course of the championships and is edging still closer to her National times.  Xander also won his 200m breastroke event and Alex his 200m IM and 50m fly with superb swims.  A gold medal also came from the boys 13/14 medley relay team of Jacob Stapleton, Xander, Max Wallis and James Manning with a very determined swim beating Canterbury by a good margin in the final.

Once all the results are recorded the younger swimmers are judged over 4 disciplines to decide the best swimmer in each age group, 10 year old Alex Macaulay won this award, the highest accolade from the County, out of 8 events he won 5 and was 2nd or 3rd in the others!!

See the latest pictures from the Kents 2007 here!  

DAY 1 – GALA 1 AND 2
Sevenoaks swimmers were finely honed and raring to go at the first weekend of the Kent County Championships, Feb 17th and 18th at Black Lion pool, Gillingham.

The weekend was kicked off by Emily Skinner with a fabulous swim in her 100m backstroke, she knocked over a second off her time to win the 11 years age group in 1.16.00. She was joined by Caroline Gloyne with another great swim, a pb and 3rd place in the 12 years in 1.15.27.
In the boys 200m breastroke, Xander Alari-Williams chasing his national time, won convincingly in 2.39.76 and was closely followed by Alex Macaulay with a very strong swim and a gold medal in the 10 years in 3.20.88. Both Aleks Dabrowski and Joseph Choong came 6th in their age groups with very good swims.
The last but not least medal of the first morning came from feisty little Paige Stapleton who flew her way to 3rd place in the girls 10 years 400m freestyle in 5.37.10

The afternoon session was started by Niki McDonald with her newfound stroke! She swam a lovely 200 breastroke to take 6th place in the 14 year age group. Closely followed by Tom Bloomfield with a great 100m backstroke, he qualified in 6th place for the Open age group final and improved his pb yet again to finish in 4th place in a 1.02.36, he was 3rd overall in his own 17/18 year age group.
Caroline Gloyne was showing her true form in the 200m fly, she finished in silver medal place with a 2.51.24, an excellent and very exhausting race!
In the boys 50 freestyle, Sevenoaks were well represented with 11 swimmers and the amazing result of 6 medals!! Our youngest swimmer of the day, Fred Biggs, stormed his way up and down the pool to take 2nd place in the 9 year age group to great cheering!! In the next group up, Alex Macaulay swam a pb to take 3rd place and next was the turn of Joe Choong with silver and Ben Van Leeuwen taking 6th place, very closely followed by newcomer Patrick Maclachlan in 7th. In the 13 years Jacob Stapleton was 4th and James Manning swam an excellent 26.99 to take 2nd place in the 14 year age group.

DAY 2 – GALA 3 AND 4
The second day started with the ladies 400m freestyle and an excellent swim from Niki McDonald to bring her home in a very creditable 7th place.

More success came in the girls 50m breastroke with the first swim of the meet from 13 year old Philippa Cochran. She won in a 36.01. Philippa joins Xander Alari-Williams in his chase for National Qualifying times this year. She is within a few tenths of a second on both the 100m breastroke and freestyle and is working very hard towards achieving this aim. Also medaling in this event was Paige Stapleton in 5th place.
For the first time Sevenoaks had more than 1 or 2 entries for a middle distance event, with 6 boys in the 200m freestyle, Fred Biggs looked very strong to come in 4th place, Alex Macaulay was showing his form to bring in a bronze medal and Joe Choong coming 5th and Jacob Stapleton 6th, we were showing that we can stand up and be counted along with the big guns!!!
Moving on to the girls 100 IM with silver from Emily Skinner, bronze from Philippa Cochran and Caroline Gloyne, 6th place for Paige Stapleton and a first ever Kent medal for Emily Cast who has worked very hard to bring herself up from 1 qualifying time last year to 5 or 6 this year and she came in 6th place with an excellent swim.
The last event of the morning was the boys 50m breastroke and Xander was in great form setting a new EBP, Event Best Performance in 34.09 and gold medal place! Also keeping up the tradition was Alex Macaulay winning his age group in 44.75 and following in Xanders footsteps…. Another swimmer new to the Kents this year, was Jonathan O’Brien who has worked very hard in training all year to achieve his goal and surpassed all expectations to come in 2nd place in a 37.87, an excellent swim. Also, Aleks Dabrowski was 2nd in his age group in 35.15 which was very pleasing.

The afternoon was kicked off by an excellent swim from Tom Bloomfield to come 3rd in his age group in 2.21.90.
James Manning swam a good 100m backstroke in 1.12.09 for 6th place in the 14 year age group. Both James and Philippa are January birthdays which means they both move up into a higher age group just before the championships so their successes are even greater than they might seem.
In the girls 100m breastroke, Philippa swam an inspired pb to win in 1.18.33 and only just missed her NQT by 0.21, a time that I am sure she will achieve over the next few months. Emily Skinner came in 4th place in her age group in 1.34.42.

Moving through to the boys 100 IM Xander and Alex Macaulay were both in gold medal positions again, with 1.10.42 and 1.22.63 respectively. They were joined in the medals by Fred Biggs with a 1.33.89 for 4th place and Joe Choong in 6th place with 1.20.71

This brought the Sevenoaks tally to;
9 golds
7 silvers
8 bronzes
5 4th places
2 5th places
9 6th places

There were also many fantastic swims from the rest of the team, we have only mentioned medalists in this report, see attached list for full results and placings. So many pb’s, too numerous to mention!

A truly amazing start to the Championships, Good luck to all for the next 2 weekends……….

Out of interest, this year we have;
40 individual swimmers
188 individual swims
Teams entered in 4 different age groups.

Jo, Julian and Kit.

At the end of a wet and windy week that had seen a last-minute change of venue for this gala due to storm-damage in Horsham, a young Sevenoaks team packed with swimmers making their first competitive appearance for the club travelled to Burgess Hill for East Grinstead Swimming Club's Puffin Trophy. This was the first Trophy Gala of the year, and the team produced a magnificent performance to win the trophy just ahead of hosts East Grinstead .

The opening two relays, the girls' and boys' 8x25 breaststroke squadrons, set the tone for an evening in which the team performances, which were worth double points, were crucial in securing victory. We were 2nd in both these races, edged out on each occasion by Littlehampton on the touch, and followed this up with first place in the two U11 Medley relays. What a start! Particularly good swims came from Dan Moss and Alex Tucker in their backstroke and freestyle legs respectively, and Rebekah Collins and Zoe Harding in their backstroke and breaststroke.

Although the relays were the foundation of the win – we triumphed in 8 in all, and managed a further 6 2 nd places – there were a number of notable individual swims as well. Tom Pilley, one of the many making his first appearance, won his 1 length breaststroke with a superb swim and Ben van Leeuwen took almost a second off his PB as he stormed to victory by 5 metres in the 50m backstroke. Ellen Benn finished very strongly in her 25m freestyle, and was unlucky to be edged into second place.

Some of the best performances, though, came from swimmers who did not win their events. William Macaulay had a fine evening, taking 2 seconds off his freestyle and 3 seconds off his butterfly PBs, and Max Montaner-Willis and Emily Monkhouse smashed their breaststroke PBs. Last of all, William Guinane, the youngest swimmer in the squad, produced two excellent swims to ensure second places for the 10u relay team in both the medley and freestyle events.

Fittingly for such an exciting and friendly gala, the final result was in doubt until the very last race. The boys needed at least 3 rd place in the 8x25 freestyle squadron to ensure victory, but they signed off with one final relay victory thanks to Joe Choong's strong final leg. To see a full list of swimmer times please click here.

Final results:
Sevenoaks 202, East Grinstead 212, Littlehampton 226, Burgess Hill 230, Atlantis Horsham 275 and Hailsham 358

At the final round of the Kent Junior League on Saturday night, Sevenoaks romped home with a 27 point victory and will be promoted for the first time ever into the 1 st Division next year.

In a very exciting last round the evening was kicked off by a convincing win in the Individual Medley from 13 year old Steffi King who went on to repeat her performance in the 100m f/s. She was closely followed by 10 year old Paige Stapleton in the 50m freestyle, 12 year old Philippa Cochran in the 12 year and 13 year 100m breastroke and 12 year 100m freestyle, 12 year old Angus Wyatt in the 100m breastroke, 11 year old Emily Skinner in the 50m freestyle, 10 year old Alexander Macaulay in the 50m backstroke and breastroke, 13 year old Xander Alari-Williams in the 100m breastroke, 13 year old James Manning in the 100m freestyle and 10 year old Ellie Thomas in the 50m breastroke. All the other individual swimmers held 2nd, 3 rd and 4 th places and many swam pb times in great spirit.

In the team events, the 13 year olds were unbeaten all night and the 10 and 11 year old boys won both of their freestyle teams, this involved Alex Robbins, Callum Joyner, Mark Goodchild, Alex Macaulay, Joseph Choong, William Malkin, Henry Thwaite and Ben Van Leeuwen. The final squadron was very noisy and exciting with 1 boy and 1 girl from each age group. We kicked off with Paige and Alex handing over just in the lead to Emily and Joseph who held the lead, Philippa and Angus then gained a body length ahead passing to Steff and James who brought the team home to tumultuous applause and a good quarter of a length ahead.

The jubilant team lined up and jumped in along the length of the pool and Steff King and James Manning collected the Division shield for the club.

Final results:
Sevenoaks 215, Black Lion 188, Dover 182, Thanet 175, White Darts 115 and Greenwich Borough Mariners 107

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL 12 SWIMMERS WHO TOOK PART IN THE DEVELOPMENT MEET, BRILLIANT SWIMS, AMAZING PB'S AND GOOD FUN!

WELL DONE…………

50m Fly

50m b/k

50m b/s

50m f/s

GOLD – ANGUS WYATT

SILVER – ALEX ROBBINS X 2, ANGUS WYATT

BRONZE – HENRY THWAITE, ANGUS WYATT