With a total of 11 gold, 9 silver and 11 bronze the Team Steel swimmers proved they adapted well to the long drive down to Portsmouth. Some of the many highlights during the meet were Thomas Wilkinson’s 1500m Freestyle in the first session, in which he took the gold medal.
Max Russell swam a superb personal best and got the bronze medal in the 400 Freestyle. In the sprint events, more PBs followed. Carter Hill took silver in the 50 Backstroke, and Charlotte Berry continued showing her great sprint capabilities with a speedy 28.07sec in the 50 Freestyle, taking top spot on the podium. 400 IM is one of the main events for JO1, as the training for this event sets up a great foundation for senior swimming. Phoebe Cooper, Georgia Robertson and Ashleigh Baillie all took the gold in their age groups and swam new personal bests.
Team Steel took over the whole podium in the Girls 12 years 400 Freestyle, with Ashleigh taking the first spot, Isla Jones coming in second and Sophie Bromley in third.
The finals at this meet were 10-14yrs, therefore Isla and Sophie (who race as 12 year olds) had an amazing result coming second in the 200 Fly and 200 Backstroke respectively. In a very tight final, Amelie Fenton just managed to touch out Charlotte Bianchi in the 200 Breaststroke, with Team Steel taking the gold and silver in that final with two fantastic new PBs.
JO1 did a fantastic job with loads of PBs, showing what they are learning at Ponds Forge is really paying dividends.
A huge thank you to Portsmouth North Sea for hosting such a brilliant meet.