Western Counties Age Groups: Final Weekend, 14-15 June 2014

The final weekend of the Western Counties Age Groups saw the action move to Hengrove, where the club's finest age-group swimmers continued to test themselves against the very best in the region. As well as our relay teams, ten swimmers competed in individual events: Olivia Passmore, Milly Kendall, Emily Eveling, Aliyah-Mai Webb, Katie Townsend, Ella Farley, Alec White, Sam Criddle, Matt Ramsay and Tim Western. Having met very testing qualifying times, they represented the club with immense credit.

Each day started with relays. The men's 4x100m medley relay team (Alec White, Charlie Kendall, Adam Edwards, Matt Ramsay) finished 16th, as did the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team of Aliyah-Mai Webb, Emily Eveling, Katie Townsend and Ella Farley. The teams had also matched each other's results in the first weekend, so the battle of the sexes came down to the final day, when the men's team (joined by Sam Criddle) came 16th in 4x100m free and the women took the bragging rights with 13th in the 4x100m medley.

Other highlights of the weekend included Emily Eveling's national qualifying time in the heats of the 200m free, and her third-place finish in the 400m IM. Also on the podium, in the next age group of the same event, was Aliyah-Mai Webb, who took bronze with a superb swim. Emily finished 8th in her 200m free final, 7th in 200m backstroke, and 9th in 200m breaststroke.

Having just missed a final the previous weekend, Alec White put matters right with a terrific performance to come 5th in the 100m backstroke, and he narrowly missed another final with 9th in 100m breaststroke.

The results can be viewed in full here.

So the Western Counties Age Group Championships came to a close with fifteen swimmers having represented the club in relays and individual events. Of those, five reached finals, and two (Emily and Aliyah) took medals. Given the size and strength of the Western region, which includes the national club champions and many other exceptional clubs, our swimmers have performed wonders, and everyone at the club congratulates them on their achievements.