Sudbury Storms travelled to Woodbridge for the first round of the Suffolk ASA's Junior Summer League. The league caters for swimmers aged eight to 13. The Deben gala followed a month of intensive competition for many of the Storms.
Teams from Lowestoft, Deben, Sudbury and First Strokes were competing, which the Storms led from the start.
By the midway point, Storms had lost some of their earlier advantage, but they completely dominated the second half, with the girls partic
ularly doing well.
The finale was the team cannon relay, which involved a team of eight swimmers of varying ages, which saw another convincing win for the Storms. Result: Sudbury 210, Lowestoft I 191, First Strokes 184, Lowestoft II 182, Deben C 130.
The Storms notched up 23 personal best times, four of which were new Suffolk county development qualifying times (SCDQT) and one club record for ten-year-old Mollie Milsom. Personal bests were recorded by:
Ryan Alexander, 50m breaststroke, 00:47.92
Ellen Beattie, 25m butterfly, 00:18.86
Thomas Blomfield, 50m breaststroke, 00:59.70; 25m butterfly, 00:26.16
Jessica Dilling, 50m freestyle, 00:33.39; 50m butterfly, 00:39.09
Ethan Frost, 100m individual medley, 01.24.20 SCDQT; 50m backstroke, 00:40.09
Robert Halls, 50m breaststroke 01:01.86; 50m backstroke, 00:45.45; 50m freestyle, 00:38.86; 25m butterfly, 00:22.73
Sophie Heaton, 50m freestyle, 00:35.61
John Jiang, 50m butterfly, 00:38.58
Sam Jones, 100m breaststroke, 01:26.74; 100m freestyle, 01:19.20 SCDQT
Mollie Milsom, 25m butterfly, 00:17.70 club record; 50m backstroke 00:42.01
Elliott Mo, 50m freestyle, 00:49.13 SCQT
Benjamin Pentney, 50m freestyle, 00:36.92
Joseph Pentney, 50m backstroke, 00:52.26
Gemma Rides, 50m breaststroke, 00:52.83
Ella Rides, 50m breaststroke, 00:42.16
Harriet Wooler, 100m individual medley, 01:24.02 SCQT
With the County Development Championships at the end of May, many of the Storms swimmers were looking to add to their qualifying swims. The team already have 54 swimmers qualified for the championships, and more than 230 individual qualifying times.
Team manager Robin Deal said: "We have a target of 250 individual qualifying times which, based upon the performances of the swimmers at the weekend, should be easily achievable.
This young group of swimmers shows enormous promise and we're confident that we have some stars in the making."
Storms has development, club, county, regional and masters squads training at the Kingfisher Leisure Centre Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Further details can be found on www.sudburyswimming.org.uk.
The full article contains 441 words and appears in Suffolk Free Press newspaper.
