Sevenoaks Swimming Club’s ‘A’ team recently returned from the National Arena ‘B’ final in Cardiff securing a fantastic 6th place overall, and 4th place in the combined relays. The qualifying process took place over the latter part of 2018 and involved over 350 clubs and 10,000 swimmers (in six regional leagues) battling their way through the three qualifying rounds to reach the prestigious finals.
Only the top 20 clubs made it through, the first 10 to the ‘A’ finals and the next ten to the ‘B’ final. On the day. Sevenoaks fielded one of the youngest squads, with only one male and two female swimmers competing in the Open events, with the remaining Open category spots being fielded by their younger swimmers. Their opposition consisted of the eventual winners Mount Kelly as well as Winchester, Southport, Camden Swiss Cottage, Thanet, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Bromley and Ipswich.
Each member of the Sevenoaks team gave every ounce of effort, many swimming in back to back events. There were plenty of top three finishes in both the individual and relay events. Most notable of these were the individual 1st place finishes from Kara Dimond (14/U 100m breaststroke) Eva Okaro (100m freestyle and 100m butterfly) and Aiden McMillan (16/U butterfly) together with the Girls 14U 4 x 50m freestyle team – Eva Okaro, Samriddhi Das, Imogen Stoddart and Isabella Okaro who also took the win.
Eva was justly rewarded for her efforts, winning the award for the top swimmer in the 14/under age group (even more remarkable because she isn’t yet 13!) presented by Commonwealth Gold medallist Alys Thomas.
Head Coach Keiron Piper said: “I am incredibly proud of each and every swimmer – reaching the finals with such a young team was a huge achievement, and to come 6th against huge opposition was justly deserved”.
The team consisted of: Abigail Saunders, Alyze Gentles, Amelia Tovey, Fern Gray, Thomas Johnston, Millie Armstrong,Demi Alli, Jacob Crombie, Toby Burke, Devon Tannock, Joseph Box, Elspeth Watson, Eva Okaro, Izabella Okaro, Kara Dimond, Samriddhi Das, Jaedon Lynch, Noah Enticknap, Thomas Creasey, Lilie Chambers, Maddy Glen, Amelia Childs, Edith Norton, Zoë Naylor-Perrott, Aiden McMillan, Euan Terry, Jacob Hudson, Louis Hayes, Oliver Coote, Robert Allen, Amy Farthing, Emma Evans-Wilson, Benjamin Strebel, Eddie Hammond and Nathan Rodrigues.
