Fabulous first Gala of the season for Thame swimmers

THE start of the new swimming gala season kicked off at BBAT over the weekend, September 17- 18, with Thame Swimming Club swimmers taking on the neighbouring clubs of Didcot Barramundi, Aylesbury and Bourne End.

Didcot Barramundi retained the overall winner’s trophy (1540 points), with Thame coming a respectable third (1283 points) behind Aylesbury (1402).

The club’s spokesperson, Helen Williams reported: “With the fabulous coaching support from Mark Simms, Lucy North, Karen Powell and Simon Haarburger our squad of swimmers were amazing. Congratulations to everyone for putting their heart & soul into each and every race and a special call out to all the swimmers for whom this was their first gala for Thame: Mayur Humphries, Hywel Scott, Matthew Stamp and Lexi Pluckrose. We are very proud of them all.

“Congratulations to Josh Williams for coming home with the Top Boy Award with a massive 99 points (vs the 75 points for the swimmer in 2nd place) and to Lucy Block who came 3rd in the Top Girl Award, missing out on the 2nd place by just 1 point. Awesome swimming from them both!

“Whilst each swimmer was amazing, there were a couple of notable call-outs from the weekend:

Thame Swimming Club squad

· Izzy Nelson: for showing such great spirit and determination in swimming the majority of her 400IM without her goggles, well done Izzy.

· Ella Simms: for winning Gold medals in all 8 of her races, brilliant!

· George Pearson: for being the youngest competitor to take on the 200 Fly and winning Gold!

· Hazel Randall: for swimming the 400 IM and 200 Fly for the very first time.

The following swimmers who took staggering amounts of time off the following races:

o 200 Free: Lucy Day (39 seconds); Hazel Randall (13 seconds); Tabitha Dodds (12 seconds); Murray Wakefield (14 seconds)

o 400 Free: Hazel Randall (32 seconds)

o 50 Breast: Oscar North (5 seconds)

o 100 Breast: Matthew Stamp (10 seconds)

o 200 Breast: Tabitha Dodds (13 seconds); Hazel Randall (40 seconds)

o 200 IM: Matthew Evans (33 seconds); Lucy Day (10 seconds)

o 200 Fly: Harry Block (10 seconds); Maisie Randall (13 seconds)

“The gala ended with the dramatic Canon Relay comprising of eight swimmers across different age bands each swimming 50m Freestyle – with our Thame Team ‘A’ taking the Bronze medal – so huge well done to George Pearson; George Nelson; Isabel Day; Lucy Block; Josh Williams; Elizabeth Humphreys; Ella Simms and Ben Williams.”

For the full medal tally, visit Thame Swimming Club’s website: LINK HERE

SOURCE: Contributed