British Gas ASA NER 25m Age Group and Senior/Junior Championships
Rotherham Metro’s finest swimmers competed at the Age Group and the Senior Junior Winter North East Regional held at Sunderland over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd December. The Age group consisted of heat declared winners with the seniors having the top ten contesting the finals.
Senior Junior competition
In the senior competition fifteen year-old Matthew Sotheran was the star of the show for Rotherham winning Gold medals in the 50 freestyle and 100 fly and also claiming bronze medals in the 50 fly and 100 freestyle and he was part of the freestyle relay team that took the silver medal and the medley team that took the bronze medal. Nineteen year-old Dale Waterhouse returned from university to swim for the freestyle relay team helping them to the silver medal and also swam in the 50 freestyle where he not only claimed the silver medal but also achieved his national qualifying time for the event. Seventeen year-old Charlotte Pearson yet again proved just how good she is by taking the bronze medal in the 100 fly and finishing in 6th position in the 50 fly. Simon Worne 18 reached three finals where he claimed the bronze medal in the 50M breaststroke and finished 6th in the 100M breaststroke and 8th in the 200IM as well as claiming a silver and bronze as part of the relay team. Aaron Waterhouse (18) reached two finals finishing 9th in 200 freestyle and 100 fly and was also part of both relay teams claiming a silver and bronze medal. James Shiel (16) claimed a bronze medal as part of the medley relay team and Emily Shone did exceptionally well at only fifteen reaching two finals finishing 10th in the 50 backstroke and breaststroke.
Also competing in the competition was:
Kimberly Bush, Nicole Clarke, Bethany Woodcock, Josh Whitehurst, James Newton, Shannon Eades, Jessica Bushby, Kelsey Longdon and Rebecca Britten
Age Group competition
In the age group section thirteen year-old George Russell was in electrifying form claiming a full set of medals which consisted of the gold in the 200 fly, silver in the 400 freestyle and bronze in the 100 fly. Fast emerging talent that is Debbie Cocking (10) competing at her first North east championships claimed gold in the 100 fly and silver in the 100 breaststroke. Backstroke specialist Robert Pearson (13) put in a magnificent performance to claim gold in the 100 backstroke and just missed out on his national time by 100 hundredth of a second.
Also competing in the competition were:
Jack Whitehurst, Kayley Britten, Abbie Ackroyd, Rebecca Bamber, Rebecca Finnie, Holly Sotheran, Alice Aucott, Josh Hillman and Abbie Hull.