After a delay of several weeks, West Norfolk Swimming Club were finally back in action at the rescheduled and condensed second weekend of the Norfolk County Championships.
The postponement from the start of the month meant that the event now followed on from the club’s annual training camp at Culford School, Suffolk and the weekend’s results suggest that the week of intensive training has certainly paid off.
The Open Age Group saw a string of seven golds for Nathan Wells alongside a victory for Molly Lee in the Women’s 50M Breaststroke. They both also took a silver medal (100M Freestyle and 100M Breaststroke, respectively) to go with the three brought home by teammate Tobias Oglesby in each of the Backstroke distances.
Bronze medals in the category came courtesy of Oglesby (2); Freddie Laws (3); Harvey Isle; Esmie Kidman; Elyn Lauder and Alex Pattison.
There were further podium-placing swims in the 17 Years and Over category for Sarah O’Brien (2 Silvers & 2 Bronze) and Alex Florance, who took a bronze in the 200M Breaststroke.
Kidman added to her Open Age Group success with a pair of medals in the 16 Years’ age category, where Nedas Tkacenko took wins in both the 200 and 400M Freestyle events alongside four further top-three placings.
More success came courtesy of Kacie Cooper’s two silver medals in the 200M Backstroke and 200M Breaststroke; Daniel Grimmer’s pair of medals in the 200 and 400M Freestyle; Chloe Liddell’s in the 100 and 200M Butterfly and Sophie Doig’s bronze medal for the 200M Breaststroke.
The 15 Year Age group saw five top-three finishes each for Rhys Burrell and Nathan Yeaman, alongside a hat-trick of third places for Thomas Garnett. The girl’s 400M Freestyle event in the same age category saw a West Norfolk podium lockout when Elyn Lauder led home her teammates Chloe Bellamy and Erin Woodrow, with Bellamy later going on to secure a bronze medal in the 200M Backstroke.
14 year old Wiktoria Marcinek bagged three silver medals in the 400M Freestyle, 100M Backstroke and 200M Backstroke alongside a bronze in the 200 Meter Freestyle. Meanwhile, Kristina Sutika-Totlebena had a second place finish in the 100M Breaststroke alongside two third places in the 50M Backstroke and 200M Breaststroke.
Thomas Arthur Jagger took victory in the 13 year old’s 200M Butterfly event as well as a third place in the grueling 400M Individual Medley, whilst Daisy Stimpson and Eloise Collins secured further bronze medals in the 200M Butterfly and 200M Breaststroke respectively.
Alex Pattison and Belle Ringwood were responsible for the podium finishes in the 12 Years’ age category, with Pattison taking gold medals for the 400M IM and 200M Butterfly; a silver in the 100M Butterfly and a bronze in the Breaststroke event across the same distance. Ringwood won a pair of bronze medals in the 50M Freestyle and the 50M Butterfly.
Finally, in the events for swimmers aged 11 years a younger, there was success in both the 50 and 100M Butterfly events for Samuel Liddell and Toby Turner. The 50M event saw Liddell take silver to Turner’s bronze before fortunes were reversed across the 100M distance when Turner emerged victorious with a gold medal whilst Liddell brought home the bronze.
Picture: Some of the West Norfolk swimmers who competed in the delayed second weekend of the 2022 Norfolk County Championships (26th & 27th February).