Stocksbridge Sprints
Recently a team of over 50 Rotherham swimmers competed in the prestigiouss Stockbridge sprints. The event is split into age groups with some competing in the morning and the others in the afternoon; all events are over 50 metres.
In the morning session some of the younger swimmers were competing in their very first gala. In the 10-year-old girls butterfly final the first medal of many that would be won throughout the day was Gold for Rebecca Finnie with an outstanding swim that would set the tone for the rest of the swimmers. Next up was the boy’s 9-year-old butterfly final where Jack Whitehurst took 4th position; the 10-year-old butterfly final followed this where Jack McGann also came 4th. In the 12-year girls backstroke final there were two competitors with Rebecca Britten coming 4th and Abbie Hull taking 5th position. George Russell then snatched the gold in the boy’s 12-year-old backstroke final with a textbook finish. This was followed by the girl’s 14-year-old breaststroke final where Kelsey Longden also took gold with Kimberly Bush taking 6th position; Josh Whitehurst then claimed silver in the 14 years old boys breaststroke final. Rebecca finnie and Jack McGann both took the silver medal position in the 10 year olds freestyle finals, Fiona Connell then fought all the way to take fourth place in the 12 years old butterfly final. Both George Russell and Kelsey Longden then dominated from start to finish in the boy’s 12-year-old butterfly and girls 14 year old backstroke finals taking their gold tally to two each. To finish off the first set of finals Josh Whitehurst then claimed gold in the boy’s 14-year-old backstroke.
In the second set of the morning finals Abbie Ackroyd took the bronze medal in a very competitive girls 10 years old breaststroke final, with Jack Whitehurst also claiming bronze in the boys 9 years old breaststroke final. Jack McGann then came home in 4th place in the boys 10 years old breaststroke final with Chloe Rooker finishing 5th in the girls 12-year old freestyle final. George Russell then claimed his hat trick of gold medals in the 12-year-old freestyle final, which was then followed by Kelsey Longden taking Silver in the girl’s 14-year-old butterfly final with Kimberly Bush taking 4th place.
Josh Whitehurst then took gold in the 14 years old boys butterfly final with a winning margin of over 2 seconds, Kayleigh Britten finished in 5th place in the girls 9 years old backstroke final. Rebecca Bamber who was the slowest going into the final of the girls 10 years old backstroke final then produced one of the performances of the entire meet by claiming the silver medal, Jack Whitehurst also claimed the silver medal in the 9 year old boys backstroke final with Adam Hedge taking 5th position. Jack McGann in his fourth final of the morning came 4th in the 10-year-old boys backstroke final with Alex Forth also coming 4th in the and George Russell 6th in the 12 year old boys breaststroke final. Kelsey Longden then took gold in the 14-year-old girls freestyle final with Kimberley Bush taking the bronze medal position, it was then left to Josh Whitehurst to finish the morning session as it had started by winning gold in the 14 years old boys freestyle.
Kelsey Longden was then awarded the top girl award in the morning session; this is based on points scored in each final.
In the very first final of the afternoon the girls 11yrs 50M Butterfly it was Holly Sotheran, making her competition comeback after her injury who claimed Gold with Alice Aucott gaining Silver and Yvonne Graves taking the 4th place medal. Next up was the boys 11yrs old butterfly final where there were 4 finalists from Rotherham, coming home to take the Silver medal was Robert Kirk with Connor Neal gaining the Bronze medal, 4th place went to Josh Hillman and 5th was Robert Pearson with less than a second separating all 4 boys. The 13yrs girls backstroke final was next on the agenda with the Gold medal being won by Emily Shone and Shannon Eades taking a well-deserved Bronze medal. It was time for Matthew Sotheran to show what he could do in the boy’s 13yrs old backstroke final, not only did he take the Gold medal by over 2 seconds he also set a new meet record, Sam Pearson also in the final came 5th. In the girl’s 15yrs and over Breaststroke final Frances McGrother was the only Metro representative and she fought all the way to the line to gain a silver medal. Next into the fray was the boy’s 15yrs and over breaststroke event where there were 3 finalist from metro, taking his first Gold of the afternoon (and there would be many to follow) was Dale Waterhouse with Daniel McLean taking the silver medal and Ben Bainbridge coming home in 5th.
Round two of the afternoon finals once again saw numerous metro finalist and the Gold rush was started by Alice Aucott claiming Gold in the 11yrs old girls freestyle final with Holly Sotheran taking the Bronze and Alicia Hartley coming 6th. Next was the 11 yrs boys’ freestyle final where Robert Pearson claimed the Gold medal and Josh Hillman the bronze with Connor Neal taking 4th and Robert Kirk 6th. In the 13yr old girls Butterfly final Emily Shone claimed the silver with Jessica Bushby taking bronze followed by Bethany Woodcock in 4th, Nicole Clarke in 5th and also Shannon Eades in 6th. In the 13 yr old boys Butterfly final Matthew Sotheran again took the Gold medal with James Newton taking 4th place. Charlotte Pearson was just edged out into the silver medal position by 3 hundreds of a second in the girls 15 yrs and over backstroke final with Frances McGrother taking 6th place. In a scintillating boys 15 yrs and over backstroke final Dale Waterhouse once again took the Gold just edging out Daniel McLean into the silver medal position with Adam Parkes also taking 4th place.
The first final of the second session was the girl’s 11 yrs breaststroke with 3 girls representing Rotherham, one of them being the past Yorkshire silver medallist and the other the present champion. This was probably the most exciting race of the entire gala with Alicia Hartley taking the Gold by 2 hundredths of a second from Alice Aucott who took the silver and Holly Sotheran in 6th position. Not to be outdone the 11yr old boys had 4 finalist with Connor Neal taking the silver and Robert Pearson the bronze with Josh Hillman in 4th and Ben Cliff who was only 11 on the day taking 6th position. In the girl’ 13 years freestyle there were 2 finalist with Emily shone taking silver and Shannon Eades taking the Bronze medal. Sam Pearson took 4th position in the boy’s freestyle final and Charlotte Pearson romped home by over 2 seconds to take the gold in the girls 15 years and over Butterfly in a new meet record. There were then four finalists in the 15 years and over butterfly with Dale Waterhouse taking his 3rd Gold of the session followed by Simon Worne in the silver position and Daniel McLean taking Bronze and Aaron Waterhouse coming home in 4th.
The last finals of the day and once again there was a massive amount of Rotherham finalist. First up the girls 11 years backstroke final where Alicia Hartley gained a silver medal followed by Holly Sotheran who took the bronze and Alice Aucott finishing in 5th place. In the boys 11 years backstroke final it was a one, two, three with Robert Pearson taking Gold, Josh Hillman Taking Silver and Connor Neal coming home in the Bronze medal position and Robert Kirk taking 6th place. In the girls 13 years breaststroke and the boys breaststroke finals there was only one Rotherham swimmer in each final, however Emily Shone finished first taking the gold medal and Mathew Sotheran took silver in the boys final. Charlotte Pearson won gold in the girl’s freestyle final with Frances McGrother also coming home in 5th position. In the last final of the day the boys 15 years and over Freestyle final the ever dependable Dale Waterhouse stormed home to the Gold medal position which was four out of four with Daniel McLean taking silver and Aaron Waterhouse and Simon Worne taking 4th and 5th place respectively.
Dale Waterhouse and Emily Shone were awarded the top boy and girl in the afternoon session concluding a very successful meet.
Other swimmers taking part were Megan Dobson (9), Hannah Burgess (9), Rebecca Durn (10), Isabelle Stewart (10), Ceri Thorman (10), Theresa Graves (11), Lucy Handley (11), Caitlin Wallis (11), Zoe Thompson (14), William Bailey (14) and Matthew Wilson (14).