Royal Tunbridge Wells Monson Swimming Club continued where they left off a fortnight ago at the third and penultimate weekend of the Kent County ASA swimming Championships held at Medway Park last weekend.

Adding a further 12 gold, 8 silver and 8 bronzes to their already impressive tally. Punching way above their weight, Monson’s hit ratio at the weekend was an outstanding 24% of starts resulting in gold, 51% winning a medal, and 90% registering a top 6 finish.

Leading the way was Ladies Team Captain, Beth Hathaway (17 years) who, despite feeling unwell, powered her way to victory in the Ladies open blue ribbon event, the 100m Freestyle. Qualifying fastest, Beth led from start to finish and never looked like be pressed.

Beth was awarded the D Spain Cup as Champion by County President Kay Grimshaw as well as a gold medal for first place in the 17/18 age group in which she established a new event best performance (EBP). Beth was pleased with her win, as she had been unable to compete in the previous two years due to illness and injury, but disappointed with the time. “I have been training so well and knew I could swim fast” said Beth, “The win and the title are important to me although I would have liked to have swum fastser. It’s good to back to my best!”.

Beth also took two silvers on the second day of competition in the Ladies Open 400m Freestyle. Team mate Eve carless (16 years) also joined Beth in the 100m and 400m Freestyle taking both age group and junior bronzes in the latter in new personal best (PB).

Breaststroker Annabel Guye-Johnson (12 years) had a busy weekend, competing first on Saturday at the John Charles Centre in Leeds, in the British Gas International which doubled as the trials for this year’s European Youth Olympics Festival (EYOF).

Competing in 100m breaststroke, which featured Olympic Champion Rūta Meilutytė, and nearly two years out age, Annabel finished a very creditable 11th in the EYOF rankings in a new PB and gained valuable experience of competing at this level. Less than 24 hours later Annabel was in action again at Medway Park, first in the heat of the Ladies Open 50m Breaststroke where she qualified 4th fastest in a new PB and then in dominating the 13 year old age group 100m Breaststroke to win by a massive margin.

Annabel was then back to the blocks within 3 minutes to race the final of the open 50m breaststroke where she finished 4th in the junior and 6th in the senior final. Later in the afternoon a very tired Annabel completed her weekend efforts in taking the Junior Bronze and 4th place in the senior 100m breaststroke final.

Caitlin Fearon (12 years) also took gold in the 100m breaststroke event and adding a hat-trick of golds in the 100m, 200m and 400m Individual Medleys (IM) and gold in the 100m Freestyle. Caitlin’s 100m IM and 100m Freestyle swims were both new EBP’s. Caitlin was unlucky not to complete a clean sweep of her age group freestyle events, being denied victory in the 50m freestyle by just 0.04 of a second. Caitlin’s personal tally at this year’s county championships is now 9 golds a silver and a bronze putting her in a commanding position to defend her overall champion ‘BAGCATS’ title going into the last weekend of competition.

Backstroker Savanna Jemmet (14 years) also had a succesful weekend winning her age group 200m backstroke title by a considerable margin and lowering the EBP by over 2 seconds, a record which has stood for 16 years. Savanna also added silver in the 100m IM event. Charlotte Chapman (14 years) also took gold in the 400m IM, her first Kent County title and Silver in the 200m IM and bronze in the 100m Freestyle. A delighted Ella Ryan (11 years) also won her first County medal, taking bronze in the 200m backstroke with a sterling 12 second PB.

The boys also continued their improving fortunes, led by men’s team captain Callum Ryan (16 years). Callum who is having an outstanding championships took his second gold of the year in the 400m IM and silver in the 400m Freestyle. Callum also narrowly missed the rostrum for the junior medals in, a very tight, 100m breaststroke where only a few tenths of a second split 1st to 4th albeit taking an age group silver as consolation. Callum also took age group medal in the 200m Freestyle.

There were also first county medals for George Hinton (14 years) taking bronze in his age group 50m backstroke and Sam Fenton (16 years) bronze in the 100m breaststroke behind team mate Callum Ryan. The ever improving Simon Newton also achieved a top 6 finish in the 13 year old 50m backstroke. Also competing for Monson were: Stephanie Andrews (12 years), Thomas Leman (10 years), Emily Das (10 years), Lucy Reeves (11 years), Mia Burns (11 years), Anna Bayley (13 years), Charlotte Scholes (13 years) and Joshua Harrison (14 years).

Monson swimmers will in action again next weekend as this year’s County Championships draw to a close.