West Norfolk Swimming Club were in Norwich for the 2023 Norfolk County Championships took place on 28th & 29th January and 4th & 5th February.
The Purple Army contingent was sizable and much increased from the six representatives present at the championship-opening long distance weekend earlier in the year now that the more traditional 50; 100; 200 and 400 Meter distances were to be contested.
Strong and consistent performances were the theme throughout the two weekends of action, leading to five West Norfolk swimmers leaving the UEA SportsPark with overall age group honors – awards recognising performance across the entire schedule of championship events.
Tobias Oglesby secured third place in the overall completion for the Men’s Open Age Category.
Three West Norfolk swimmers were awarded Second place trophies – Polly Anderson in the Girls’ 11 Years Category; Thomas Garnett in the Boys’ 16 Years Category and Nathan Wells in the Men’s Open Age Category.
However, the headline achievement came courtesy of Milly Johnson who secured first place and was the overall winner of the Girls’ 13 Years Category.
Sunday 5th February also saw both the prestigious Skins and highly popular relay events take place, with the former up first.
Skins events, for which competitors secure one eight spots via their performance in the 200M Individual Medley, see participants eliminated one-by-one in a series of 50 Meter races until only two remain to race head-to-head for the title.
Four Skins competitions were held – making a total of 32 spots up for grabs.
West Norfolk had two representatives each in both the Boys’ 13 and under competition – Alex Pattison and Theo Ryan – and the Girls’ 13 and under competition – Milly Johnson and Belle Ringwood.
The Women’s event saw Sarah O’Brien fly the purple flag, whilst the Men’s competition had three West Norfolk representatives in the form of Harvey Isle; Joseph Wells and Nathan Wells, who achieved a second place finish after making it all the way through to the final head-to-head.
The championships were once again closed out by the annual Norfolk County Relay Gala – as has been the case since it was folded into the main championship schedule in 2018.
West Norfolk secured podium positions in a total of seven relay events.
There were bronze medals in the 13/14 year old Girls’ 4 x 50M Medley and the 11/12 year old Boys’ 4 x 50M Freestyle, with two more courtesy of the 15/16 year old Boys’ team who achieved third place in both the Medley and Freestyle events.
The 11/12 year old Boys’ also had a double medal haul, adding a silver in their Medley event to their earlier bronze.
Further silver medals came courtesy of the Men’s Senior team who placed second in both Open Age Group Medley and Freestyle relays.
