Swimmers on right course (From Redditch Advertiser)

Swimmers on right course

9:42am Wednesday 30th April 2008

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REDDITCH Swimming Club kicked-off their 2008 "Diddy" League campaign with a trip to Stechford for round one where they came up against Braunstone, Enderby, Lichfield, Newport and Wellington.

This year RSC have hopes of reaching the division two final and achieving promotion and a strong second place finish helps in this aim.

Redditch were in contention through the evening but just fell into second at the end.

They were helped by seven individual victories: Caitlin Britt (25m breaststroke) and Oliver Thomson(25m backstroke) scored for the nine year olds.

For the 11 year olds Braiden Hartles(50m freestyle) and Adam Watson(50m backstroke) won their races.

Twelve year old David Green added the 50m freestyle and Sophie Bridgman scored a double victory in the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle.

Three more victories came in the relays as the nine year old girls medley squad (Isobel Wilson, Caitlin Britt, Eve Parker and Isobel Griffiths) came out on top as did the girls 12 year old medley team (Sam Lindsay, Lydia May, Sophie Bridgman and Molly Dutton) and the girls mixed age relay team (Isobel Wilson, Caitlin Britt, Francesca Phillips, Amelia Tompkins, Nicola Moss, Charlee Churchill, Molly Dutton and Sophie Bridgman).

The team put in fine all-round performances to gain another 13 second and eight third place finishes in the evening to leave the final table: Final Result: Braunstone 234, Redditch 204, Lichfield 177, Enderby 163, Newport 143, Wellington 137.

Leading the way to qualification was Nicola Moss who was second in her class (Youth D girls - 11 year olds) and also won the the open triathlon event for her age group which includes pistol shooting.

She will be joined in the finals by Clara Parker who finished fifth. Lucy Corden came in twelfth.

In the youth D boys Braiden Hartles came in a strong third with a fast 1000 metre run and a personal best in the 100 metre swim.

The RSC youth D boys team qualified in second place with Braiden, Dan Bridgman and Adam Watson who finished seventh and eighth. These boys achieved third place nationally in youth E last year and will be hoping for success this year. Dan also took fourth in his triathlon class.

Courtney Hyde took third place in Youth B and qualified for the nationals with a 2,000m run and 200m swim and also won her triathlon competition.

Nine year olds Will and Megan Moss added to the the success as they each won their biathlons although they are too young to compete in the nationals this year.

Sophie Bridgman completed the RSC entry and she finished eighth in the large youth C class and finished fourth in her triathlon.

This gala aims to give competitive opportunities to new swimmers and RSC's took their chance, scoring nine first places and six speeding tickets for going too fast as they finished second of the eight teams competing.

The individual first places were taken by Caitlin Britt inthe 25 metre butterfly and freestyle, Isobel Wilson took first in nine years backstroke and Megan Moss first in nine years breaststroke, Francesca Phillips and Oliver Thomson took the honours in the ten years butterfly and Hayley Rose in 11 year old freestyle in her first gala. The relay squads added a further three wins- Megan Moss, Isobel Griffiths, Isobel Wilson and Caitlin Britt in the nine year girls freestyle and medley relays and Alex Jones, Madeleine Rhodes, Francesca Phillips and Ellie Stanley in the 10 years girls medley relay.

Individual speeding tickets were awarded to Oliver Thomson, Adam Watson, Chris Sutton-Smith and Stephen Dear and the 11yr old boys medley relay squad (Adam Watson, Chris Sutton-Smith, Stephen Dear and Zac Gill) also received one.

There were many other good swims scoring strongly, including second places for Nicolas Martin, Will Hitchens, Jake Rowland, Amber Fantham-Jones and Charlee Churchill and relay seconds for the boys nine yr medley (Adam Beaumont, Nicholas Martin, Will Moss and James Coward), the boys 10 years freestyle relay (Will Hitchens, Ed Randall, Jake Rowland and Oliver Thomson) and the mixed girls and boys canon relay (Caitlin Britt, Francesca Phillips, Charlee Churchill, James Coward, Jake Rowland and Adam Watson).

Redditch Coach Chris Britt said: "I was delighted with the way that everyone swam and there were many excellent new personal best performances"

Final Result: Nuneaton and Bedworth 308, Redditch 281, Leamington Spa 261, Lichfield 259, Fox Hollies 220, Hinckley 207, Gloucester City 186, Haden Hill 185.

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