Royal Tunbridge Wells Monson (RTWM) Swimming Club swimmers are riding high on the crest of a wave after some outstanding performances at the first weekend of the South East Regional British Gas Age Group Championships held at K2 Crawley last weekend.

Competing against the best of the South East RTWM had one of their best weekends at the championships in recent years and amassed four Gold and two Bronze medals with four swims inside the difficult National Qualifying Times (NQT).

With a new format to the championships this year necessitating the ability to swim both fast heats and finals on all 200m events, medalling was always going to be difficult, especially for those with a heavy programme.

Leading the way with a tough programme was 11 year old Caitlin Fearon who continued her recent good form dominating the events she contested taking gold in the 100m, 400m and 800m Freestyle events and 200m Backstroke.

“It was not only the fact that she won four gold’s that was impressive but the way in which she did it” said RTWM’s Director if Swimming Kim Longland.

“She won by good margins: the 100m Freestyle by 0.84 secs, the 400m Freestyle by 4.72 secs and 800m Freestyle by a massive 24.82 secs. In the 200m Backstroke she not only set a new long course personal best (PB) in the heat but then went nearly two seconds faster in the final and again won convincingly by a margin of 2.16 sesc.

Caitlin’s swims also improved her National rankings and she currently leads the 800m Freestyle with her weekend performance and also goes into the second weekend of competition leading the BAGACAT points table, which is an age group Victor Ludorum event to find the best all round swimmer across all strokes and distances, with 1577 points a lead of 102 points albeit there are a couple of swimmers lurking in top four with some of their best events still to come.

Team mate Savanna Jemmett (13 years) was also in action in the 200m Backstroke chasing her elusive NQT and was not disappointed on this occasion. In the heat Savanna established a new club record and PB to qualify for this summer’s National Age Group Championships in Sheffield. In the end she qualified by a comfortable 1.7 secs and is currently ranked sixteenth nationally.

In the final Savanna again went under the National mark to take the Bronze medal.  Not to be outdone and despite feeling unwell Annabele Guye-Johnson (12 years) went close to her best in the heat to qualify fourth fastest for 200m Breaststroke final where she put in a very fast fourth 50m split to move from fifth at the last turn to third and take the Bronze medal and improve on her National entry time, which also moves her up to tenth in the National rankings at the time of writing.

Also competing for RTWM at the championships was Charlotte Chapman (13 years), who unfortunately was suffering from the same bug as Annabel, but still finished a very creditable twelfth in the 100m Freestyle setting a new PB. Charlotte also joined Savanna, Annabel and Caitlin to compete in the girls 400m Medley relay where they finished eighteenth out of forty against the might of the City and Hub Club conglomerates.

The relay performance also pleased Kim Longland as the event was for girls aged 11-14 years and all of the RTWM swimmers were competing ‘out of age’ and against much more mature opposition.

Ella Ryan (10 years) was competing in her first Regional Championship and finished a very commendable nineteenth in the 200m Backstroke as was George Hinton (14 years) who finished twentieth in the 100m Backstroke in a new long course PB.

Meanwhile at the Royal Victoria Dock, in London, Lucianne Sarson (17 years) joined the likes of Olympic Silver medallist Kerry-Anne Payne in the British Gas Great London One Mile Swim. Swimming in a cold 17°C and against a strong headwind Lucianne finished 64th overall in the mile in her first open water swim and 14th best female. Matthew Chadwick (17 years) finished 73 overall and 55th male home and was joined in the race by his mother who finished a very creditable 911th out of all female finishers.

Academy Coach Simon Killick also competed and finished 442nd in the men’s event. RTWM return to action again in two weeks at the Swim South East Regional British Gas Age Group Championships at K2 Crawley chasing more medals and NQT’s.

Anyone interested finding out more about RTWM can do so on the club web site which can be found at: www.rtwmonson.org.