News November 2024

Kent Junior Meet

On the weekend of 26^th and 27^th October the club travelled to Medway Park Leisure Centre in Gillingham for this year’s Kent Junior Meet. This gala has been specifically designed by the county for emerging swimmers.  Swimmers who win their event received a county medal.

This year we had forty-four swimmers entered in the competition, with all of them having a great weekend.  We won 10 gold (Andrey, Alice L, Amelia, Lisa, Maria, Roslyn and Shekinah), 18 silver and 7 bronze medals. With lots of pb’s and some new county consideration times too.  Thank you to our coaches Kirsten and Sam, and to our team managers and officials who volunteered across the weekend. A special thank you to Mark Bond, who went down to help team manage without a swimmer in attendance, but ended up saving the Sunday morning session by stepping in to the starter role as the county had been let down.

Fireworks Meet

The weekend of the 2^nd and 3^rd of November is one of the busiest on our competition calendar. Sixty-six swimmers from across our competitive squads were in action at Crook Log leisure centre for EDSC and Dartford & Districts Fireworks Meet swimming in 299 individual events.  It proved to be a fantastic weekend resulting in lots of pb’s and of course swimmers winning the much sort after ducks. The club came away with a nice haul of medals made up of 30 golds, won by Donir, Ellie G, Emilie, Faith, Hayley, Lisa, Lucas, Max, Maria, Neve, Nola, Samuel and Shekinah, 20 silvers and 21 bronze medals. Thank you to our team managers and officials who helped across a very busy weekend.

London Winter Championships

On the same weekend fifteen swimmers from Top squad qualified for the London Winter Championships held at the LAC Stratford. The championship is a short course meet with tough qualification times as there are only two age groups 16 & under and 17+.  This was Ross’s first gala with the club and the team had a great weekend with some amazing pb’s and seasons bests. Samantha won a fantastic silver medal in the girls 17+ 100m individual medley. Our finalists were Samantha 50m breaststroke 4^th, Ellie L 200m freestyle 8^th and 400m freestyle 4^th, Daisy 100m freestyle 9^th and 50m freestyle 4^th, Aaron 50m backstroke 9^th and Olivia 50m backstroke 6^th and 100m backstroke 7^th. Once again, a big thank you to our team mangers and officials.

Downs Syndrome British Championships 2024

On the weekend of 16^th & 17^th November Billy from Top squad was in action at K2 in Crawley, defending his eight British titles. What a weekend Billy had retaining all his 2024 titles. Billy is now British Champion in 200m, 100m and 50m backstroke, 100m and 50m breaststroke, 100m and 50m freestyle, and 100m individual medley. Congratulations Billy we are very proud of you.

Atlantis Christmas Cracker

Forty-four swimmers travelled to Horsham in Sussex on the weekend of the 23^rd & 24^th November for the last open gala of 2024.  There were some big clubs from the Southeast region competing, and our swimmers did themselves proud coming home with 13 golds (Alex, Daisy, Ela, Ellie G, Hana, Lucas, Maria and Shekinah), 17 silvers and 17 bronze medals. There were lots of pb’s, more Kent times and hot heat winners too.  A special mention goes to Shekinah who won the Top Gun award for his age group. Hayley rounded off her birthday weekend with a Kent time in her last race. Of course we mustn’t forget our fabulous team managers and officials, who endured some rather warm conditions and helped across the weekend, thank you we couldn’t do this without you.

And finally, congratulations to newly qualified officials Yik-Yan and Tim who have successfully completed their J1 swimming official qualification, to Kate and Caroline who have furthered their qualification and completed their J2 official qualification.  And a big congratulations to Sophie who has successfully passed her J2S assessment, meaning she is now a fully qualified starter.  If you are interested in becoming an official, or team manager please email Jo Barker on [email protected] she will happily talk you through what each role entails and the process.