With Senior Elite, Team Steel’s top squad, on a training camp in Thailand it was an opportunity for the youngsters to step up and show their potential. There were many first class performances across the board, such as Ashleigh Baillie’s gold medal in the 400 IM in a fantastic new personal best of 5.18:83 or Issey-May Reeves gold over the 200 Backstroke. Grace Conroy and Annabelle Wilkinson improved on their times from the heats to each get a silver in the 100 Freestyle and 200 Backstroke. Matthew Woodhall, Isla Jones and Thomas Wilkinson added more medals to their excellent podium finishes of last week. Matthew took 4 more golds in the 100 Butterfly, 400 IM, 100 Freestyle and 1500 Freestyle, Isla won gold in 200 Butterfly and Freestyle and silver in the 400 IM and 200 Backstroke and Thomas a gold in the 200 IM and a bronze in the 100 Backstroke.
It was great to see a competitive rivalry developing between Thomas Wilkinson and Max Russell in the 100 Freestyle as both touched in just over 0.20 seconds of each other. Having someone to push you in training and at competitions will really benefit both and is sure to make for some cracking future races. Honey Rose Grocock, one of the youngest swimmers competing lived up to the name of Team Steel being the only 10-year-old in the 200 Fly and finishing in the top 10. The younger swimmers of Team Steel are showing they are not afraid to take on the big races head on. Sophie Bromley is fast becoming a backstroke specialist after winning the gold over the 100 last week she took first place over the 200 in an excellent 2.27:72. Right at the end of a long competition some swimmers start to feel the toll of so many races, but not Team Steel. With a dominating performance from Matthew Woodhall, Sam Salih, Georgia Robertson, Abigail Miles and Sapphira Gabbani over the 1500 Freestyle, Team Steel collected 5 gold medals from 5 swims.
As another great weekend for Team Steel ended, both the coaches and swimmers should be pleased with their performance, with medals across all events. In two weeks time, Ponds Forge will host the final part of the Championships, the Sprints and Relay races. Hopefully there will be more fantastic performances to come.
Congratulations to all our medal winners over both weekends:
Gold medallists:
Abigail Miles 200 Breaststroke and 1500 Freestyle
Annabelle Wilkinson 100 Backstroke
Ashleigh Baillie 400 Freestyle and 400 IM
Georgia Robertson 1500 Freestyle
Isla Jones 200 Butterfly, 100 Butterfly, 400 Freestyle, 200 Freestyle and 100 Freestyle
Issey-May Reeves 200 Backstroke
Katrina Tutoveanu 100 Breaststroke
Matthew Woodhall 400 IM, 200 IM, 400 Freestyle, 200 Backstroke, 100 Backstroke, 100 Butterfly and 1500 Freestyle
Reuben Visda 200 Butterfly and 200 Backstroke
Samuel Salih 1500 Freestyle
Sapphira Gabbani 1500 Freestyle, 400 Freestyle and 200 Freestyle
Sophie Bromley 200 Backstroke and 100 Backstroke
Thomas Wilkinson 200 Breasstroke, 100 Breaststroke and 200 IM
Tom Downs 200 Butterfly
Silver medallists:
Annabelle Wilkinson 200 Backstroke and 100 Butterfly
Ashleigh Baillie 200 IM
Curtis Harper 200 Backstroke, 400 Freestyle and 200 Freestyle
Grace Conroy 100 Freestyle
Isla Jones 200 Backstroke, 400 IM and 200 IM
Matthew Woodhall 200 Butterfly
Reuben Visda 100 Butterfly and 200 IM
Samuel Salih 200 Freestyle
Sapphira Gabbani 100 Freestyle
Bronze medallists:
Alice Thickett 200 Freestyle
Annabelle Wilkinson 200 IM
Ashleigh Baillie 100 Butterfly
Charlotte Bianchi 200 Breaststroke
Grace Conroy 100 Butterfly
Issey-May Reeves 200 Freestyle
Katrina Tutoveanu 200 Breaststroke
Matthew Woodhall 200 Freestyle
Max Russell 100 Butterfly
Molly Baker 400 Freestyle and 200 Freestyle
Thomas Wilkinson 200 Backstroke, 100 Backstroke, 200 Butterfly, 400 Freestyle and 200 Freestyle