Camden Swiss Cottage swimmers were in with the very best teams from around the country and came away with a credible 4th place finish in the ‘B’ final.
This is the premier event for team competitions and a true reflection on the strength and overall depth across all age groups in clubs programmes.
For those who have never been, it could easily be compared to the FA cup final, with lots of noise and colour from the swimmers and spectators. It is very much a celebration of team swimming at the highest level. Such atmosphere always brings out the best in the team and for Camden there were some outstanding individual and team results.
Leading the way was 15 year old Felix Samuels giving the team its only individual win on the 100m freestyle. As Felix dived in there never looked like being any other winner as he majestically pulled away from the rest of the field turning in 25.24, holding his stroke together on the second 50m finishing nearly 3 seconds clear of 2nd place with 52.91 a time that would have sealed victory in the ‘A’ final later in the afternoon. His time also was a new meet record beating current Olympian Adam Browns time from 2005 of 53.44.
The Boys 13 years and under 4 x 50 Medley and Freestyle team pulled off a fantastic double victory for the club. The medley team led from start to finish with Alex Burgess (Back) 31.34, Alex Peake (Breaststroke) extended the lead with 34.23, Scott Broadis (Butterfly) 30.73 and Vincent Neves (Freestyle) 28.02. The freestyle team was even more exciting with a dead heat for equal first place with Leatherhead with both teams finishing with 1.53.40 (what did they do before electronic timing?). This time the teams splits were Burgess 28.57, Neves 28.50, Broadis 28.69 and Peake 27.64.
Other outstanding swims came when the club gained two more national qualifiers in Iao Pok Wong as the lead off leg on the 4 x 50 boys 15 years freestyle team with a 25.91 (NQT time 26.21) helping the team of Santiago Parilli 26.35, Leo Jaggs 25.44 and Felix Samuels 24.38 finish 2nd behind City of Cardiff. Reut Benaim on the girls 15 years 100m butterfly where she finished 2nd in 1.06.85 (NQT 1.07.16). Reut showed her strength and reward for the consistency in her training as well as the work the team have been doing on back end speed. Coming back so strong made all the hard work pay off with splits 32.39 / 34.46 many swimmers will be fearing her on the 2nd half of a race . Other swimmers qualifying for additional events for the first time this season were Devon Robins 2.26.82 (NQT 2.28.20) and Alex Mackay 2.13.92 (NQT 2.15.93) both on the 200m Individual medley
More good swims finishing in 2nd place were to come in on individuals when Alex Peake just narrowly missed his NQT time with 1.17.85 on the 100m breaststroke, Bogac Ayhan who made a double with 1.03.02 on the 100m backstroke, and 59.38 100m butterfly, Alex Burgess 100m backstroke 1.06.39, Olivia Willis 39.79 50m breaststroke and Ed Walsh 51.77 for the 100m freestyle. The girls 9 – 11 years Medley team of Robin Neumann 35.16 (Back), Olivia Willis 40.1 (Breast), Tamir Gonen Cohen 34.73 (fly) and India Rothschild 31.45 (free) took a 2nd place.
A large contingent of Camden Swiss Cottage swimmers competed at the second weekend of the British Gas Middlesex BAGAT and Youth Championships at Southbury Road in Enfield. ...
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