Royal Tunbridge Wells Monson Swimming Clubs (Monson) young Guns made the journey north again for this year’s British Gas Amateur Swimming Association National Age Group Swimming Championships held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

Seasoned campaigner Annabelle Guye-Johnson (14 years) was Monson most successful participant at this year’s Championships in her favoured breaststroke events. Seeded 12th, Annabel exceeded expectation to qualify for the final 7th fastest in a 2 second Personal Best (PB) of 2:40.52, her first National final and went on to maintain her position in the final, just outside her best, in 2:40.65.

Two days later a determined Annabel returned to competition to contest the 100m breaststroke. Attacking the first 50m Annabel turned in 34.27, two tenths of a second inside her own County 50m Junior Long Course record to finish in 1:13.41 another one second PB and third fastest going into the final. Annabelle again started aggressively in the final turning second, but a poor underwater phase cost her speed out of the turn and she eventually finished 6th just 0.5 off the medals in 1:13.79.

Both of Annabel’s swims established new Club records (CR) and cap off a superb season which has seen her the fastest 14 year old at the Australian Commonwealth trials, finish third in the British Gas International and continue to climb the National rankings and close the gap on those at the top.

Fourteen year old Simon Newton’s has also had a great year and a climb up the rankings rising from county medallist in March, Simon went on to win the Regional 50m Butterfly and then qualify for 3 events at the Nationals. Simon opened his account in Sheffield in the 200m Individual Medley and posted a 2:18.53 to finish 13th, a three second PB and a rise of 14 places on his seed just outside the final.

The 200m Freestyle followed two days later in which he swam marginally outside his best before returning later in the session to contest his favoured 100m Butterfly where he was seeded 20th. Like Annabel Simon went out fast and was well clear of his heat at the turn and was rewarded with 1:00.52, a two second PB and more importantly 9th fastest and a spot in the final.

Simon again went out fast in the final establishing a new PB and CR record at 50m but faded slightly to 1:01.03 to finish a very creditable 10th in his first National Final.

Emily Das (12 years) and Thomas Leman (12 years) were Monson’s other two qualifiers for the Age Group Championships and both contested breaststroke events, for which they did well to qualify as both have ‘late’ birthdays. Emily improved 3 places on her seed to set a new PB and CR of 1:20.64 finishing 12th and a reserve finalist.

Thomas posted a two second PB in his first swim in the 200m event of 2:55.84 and improved his ranking by 13 places to 26th.

Thomas also contested the 100m Breaststroke, but was clearly starting to feel the effects of a busy couple of weeks, which saw him win the Belgium Nationals just two weeks ago, with a below par performance in the 100m.

Director of Swimming Kim Longland was delighted with the results: “We’ve had a fantastic year” said Longland, “We have some great talent emerging from our Academy in the likes of Emily and Thomas, Simon has been a revelation this year and Annabel just gets better. I’m looking forward to getting some quality work under our belts over the winter with improved opportunities for our swimmers as a result some new initiatives/partnerships that we are developing and then obviously racing again!”

Monson are next in action at the Swim Wales Summer Nationals and British Gas ASA Youth Nationals over the next week and are currently recruiting 7, 8 and 9 year old boys and girls for the Monson Academy and anyone interested in joining RTWM or in the clubs activities should visit the Club website: www.rtwmonson.org with prospective members consulting the New Member Enquiry Page.