West Suffolk Swimming Club members enjoy success at Dave Robinson Suffolk County Development Meet and British Masters Championships in London

With younger swimmers competing at the Dave Robinson Suffolk County Development Meet at Ipswich’s Crown Pools and a number of Masters swimmers taking part in the British Masters Championships at the London Aquatics Centre, last weekend was a busy one for West Suffolk Swimming Club (WSSC).

The younger cohort of 18 swimmers – 11 boys and seven girls – brought home an impressive haul of 29 medals over the weekend, made up nine gold, nine silver and 11 bronze.

Top of the medal table was Sebastian Wickes (12 years) with three age group gold medals in the 50m butterfly and the 50m and 100m freestyle.

Theo Fisher (11), meanwhile, took home a full set of medal colours, with gold in the 200m breaststroke, silver in the 100m individual medley (IM) and bronze in the 100m freestyle.

Albert Widdicks (13), Vanessa Ceponyte (12) and Ella Stewart (16) all won a gold and silver apiece. Widdicks and Stewart each took gold in the 100m butterfly, with their silver medals won in the 200m backstroke and 200m freestyle respectively. As for Ceponyte, she claimed gold in the 100m freestyle and silver in the 200m freestyle in her age class.

Elsewhere at the event, talented butterfly swimmer Millie Page (12) claimed gold in the 100m event and bronze in the 50m event in her age group, with Brooke Copping (15) taking gold in the 200m butterfly race. Erin Stewart won two silver medals for the 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke.

Samuel Blackwell (17) won a stunning silver in a new personal best time in the 400m freestyle event, with Michael Hughes (11) also taking silver in the 200m breaststroke and Caitlyn Chu Yun Ong (10) demonstrating impressive speed to win silver in the 50m freestyle.

And four WSSC competitors took home a brace of bronze medals; Mia Copping (13) in the 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke, Oliver Creasy (13) in the 200m backstroke and 50m freestyle, Freddie Jordan (12) in the 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke and Connor Goldsmith (16) in the 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle.

There was also a bronze for Daniel Horn (10) in the Suffolk County Development for the 50m breaststroke.

The club also recorded a number of fourth and fifth placed finishes, with George Rees (10) and James Adams (12) unlucky to finish just outside of the medals. Rees took more than 13 seconds off his 100m IM time and Adams also set new personal best times.

Meanwhile, at the London Aquatics Centre, a new British Masters record was set by the club’s Myles Turner and a new East Region relay record was recorded in the 4x200m freestyle.

Turner got the Championships off to a fine start on day one, taking the gold medal in his age class for the 400m IM. His time of 4:43.61 was the fastest of the day by more nine seconds across all age categories and set a new British record for this event in his age group (25-29 years).

In his other individual swims, Turner dominated the 200m backstroke, claiming gold by over four and a half seconds, and took silver in the 200m IM.

Elsewhere, Jake Thomas-Mansfield (25-29 years) stepped up for the three butterfly events – the 50m, 100m and 200m along with the 50m freestyle.

Claiming an impressive silver medal in the 200m race with a time just outside his season’s best, Thomas-Mansfield was pipped into fourth place in his age group in the 100m butterfly.

Placed seventh overall in his age category, he also set a new season’s best in the 50m butterfly event, knocking 0.28 seconds from the time he set at Regionals in Norwich in March.

Thomas-Mansfield also matched his three-year-old personal best in the 50m freestyle, finishing in 11th place in a time of 25.47 seconds.

The open 4x200m freestyle team of Alistair Peagram, Andrew Kimpton, Craig Ellard and Turner took gold in the 100 years plus category, setting a new East Region record time for their age group and finishing in seventh place overall in this event.

Breaststroke specialist Maya Harris smashed her previous long course record set in 2010 to take fifth place in the 30-34 years class in the 50m breaststroke, finishing just out of the medals in a bittersweet fourth place in the 200m event.

Harris also raced the 100m breaststroke, claiming fifth in a strong field and the popular 50m freestyle event, finishing in a creditable 15th place.

Craig Ellard (40-44 years), who is a relatively recent returnee to competitive swimming, gave two polished individual performances – in the 50m and 100m backstroke, in which he placed eighth and sixth respectively. Club-mate Adam Young (40-44 years) took another agonising fourth place in the 100m freestyle, with Megan Cassidy (30-34 years) claiming sixth place in the 100m butterfly and Caitlin McKay seventh in the 100m breaststroke (18-24 years).

A week earlier on June 7, the club’s Sharon Perry (50-54) and Steve Coe (60-64) both competed in the Norfolk Masters Championships at Sportspark UEA.

In an impressive display of speed and versatility, Perry took her age group gold medal in the 100m IM, 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke, with bronze in the 50m freestyle.

Her team-mate Coe claimed silver in the 100m IM and 100m freestyle, but was pipped into fourth in a tight 50m freestyle sprint.