Sevenoaks Swimming Club competed in the first round of the National Arena Swimming League on Saturday 13th October. The League comprises of 400 swimming teams from across England and Wales, split into six regions and three divisions. All teams compete on the same day over three rounds with the top 20 ultimately competing in two finals in April.
Sevenoaks’ A Team, swimming in the Premier Division, travelled to Oxford and the B team, in Division 1, travelled to Medway Park in Gillingham. Both squads were armed and ready with strong line-ups to race against strong opposition.
The A Team got off to a strong start with victory in the Girls under-11 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay, followed by their under-13 counterparts winning the Medley Relay. Amelia Childs led the team to their first individual victory, battling to win the 100m Backstroke, followed closely by Alyze Gentles winning the under-11 50m Butterfly. Eva Okaro cruised to victory in both the under-13 100m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle. In the team events, both the under-13 girls and boys teams were victorious in the 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay as well.
There were numerous 2nd place finishes too, with a particular mention for notably strong races, coming from Jaedon Lynch, Kara Dimond, Louis Hayes, Lilie Chambers, Demi Alli, Jacob Hudson along with the under-11, under-13 and under-15 medley relay teams. In total, the team clocked up eight wins, 13 second places, eight third place finishes, 11 fourth place finishes, five fifth place finishes and four sixth place finishes over the course of the meet. The A Team finished in a highly creditable 2nd place with 192 points, behind the City of Oxford and ahead of RTW Monson, Beckenham, Sutton and Chema and Windsor.
The B Team were in high spirits at Medway Park. The great atmosphere and team spirit clearly paid dividends too with four wins, 11 second places, 17 third places, seven fourth places, seven fifth places and three sixth place finishes. The B Team’s first win came in the form of the Boys under-15 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay, to which Fern Gray followed with a great swim in the individual under-11 50m Backstroke. Club Captain George Tyler, continued the winning streak with a victory in the Open 100m Breaststroke, inspiring Eleanor Allen to repeat the feat in the under-15 category for the same event.
Powerful swims too came from Ptolemy Mangat, Holli Gushlow, Ben Strebel, Martin Argirov, Laura Wright, Torsten Mangat, Emily Brown, Edith Norton, Jasmine Wallace, Thiago Gentles, Aoife Lauerman, Millie Armstrong, Ruth Godfrey, Oscar Wilson Edison Hammond. The relay teams across all age groups also had commanding swims.
The B team secured a fantastic 3rd place behind Chelmsford and Kent Weald, finishing ahead of Bromley B, Black Lion and Ashford Town.
