Following on from the Age Group Nationals the Youth Nationals took place at Ponds Forge from 3-7 August. A successful National Championships it was too with Matthew Johnson in his first Youth Championships winning 5 Championship titles in 400m, 800m & 1500m Freestyle, 200m Fly and 400m IM and winning Silver in the 200mIM. Braxston Timm came away with the Championship title for the 100m Fly and Tom Sunter National Youth Champion in the 17/18 yrs 1500m Freestyle. Ellie Faulkner won a couple of Bronze medals in the 200m & 800m Freestyle and Lucy Spencer won Bronze in the 200mIM!! There were many great swims, it was a fantastic performance – well done swimmers!!
Day 1 in the Girls 400m IM Lucy Spencer (17) qualified for the 16 /17 yrs final and finished in 6th place. Matthew Johnson (15) and Tom Sunter (18) both qualified for the Boys 400m Freestyle. Matthew won CoSSS it’s first Youth National Championship title in the 15/16 yrs in 3.58.36. Tom finished 6th in the 17/18 yrs. Tegan Turner-Clarke (14) swam into the semi-final of the 14/15yrs 200m Fly and later qualified for the final. Lucy Spencer (17) and Tegan Turner-Clarke (14) both made it through to the semi-finals in the 100m Freestyle. The Boys 4x100m Free Team (Braxston Timm, Tom Sunter, Ricky Speed & Matthew Johnson) qualified for the final and finished 5th overall. Also competing today were Jess Taylor (16) in the 400m IM & 200m Back, Joe Faulkner (15) Ricky Speed (18) and Alex Watson (15) in the 400m Freestyle, Ellie Faulkner (17) in the 100m Freestyle, Gabi Hignett (15) in the 100m and 1500m Freestyle and Molly Grayson (14) in the 100m and 1500m Freestyle and the 200m Back.
Day 2 started off with Matthew Johnson (15) qualifying for the 200m Fly 15/16 semi final and Ellie Faulkner qualifying for the 400m Free 16/17 yrs final. Matthew also qualified for the 15/16 yrs 200m IM semi final and the Girls 4x100m Free Team got through to the final (Ellie Faulkner, Lucy Spencer, Molly Grayson & Tegan Turner-Clarke). The lunchtime session saw Matthew Johnson (15) win his second Championship title in the 15/16 yrs 1500m Freestyle in 15.44.83 and Tom Sunter (18) winning the Youth Championship title in the 17/18 yrs 1500m Freestyle in 15.36.69. Session 3 and Ellie just missed out on a medal finishing 4th in the 16/17 yrs 400m Freestyle, Matthew swam into the final of the 17/18yrs 200m Fly and the 200m IM, Tegan qualified for the finals of the 14/15 yrs 200m Fly and the Girls 4X100m Free Team finished 6th in the final. Alex Watson (15) swam today in the 200m Fly and the 1500m Freestyle, Tegan Turner-Clarke (14), Molly Grayson (14) Gabi Hignett (15) and Jess Taylor all swam in the 400m Freestyle, Ricky Speed (18) competed in the 1500m Freestyle and Joe Faulkner (15) swam in the 200m IM and the 1500m Freestyle.
Day 3 Tegan Turner-Clarke (14), Molly Grayson (14) and Ellie Faulkner (17) all qualified for the semi final of the 200m Freestyle, with Tegan and Ellie making it into the final. The Boys 4x200m Free Team (Tom Sunter, Matthew Johnson, Ricky Speed & Braxston Timm) won the Championship title after finishing 2nd in the heats. Ellie Faulkner (17) then went on to win a Bronze medal in the 16/17 yrs 800m Freestyle. In the finals Matthew made it a treble winning Gold in the 15/16 yrs 200m Fly he also won Silver in the 15/16 yrs 200m IM. Gabi Hignett (15) was also swimming today in the 200m & 800m Freestyle, Lucy Spencer (17) and Tegan Turner-Clarke (14) both swam in the 100m Fly and Jess Taylor (16) swam in the 800m Freestyle.
Day 4 saw Tom Sunter (18) and Matthew Johnson (15) swim into the semi finals of the 200m Freestyle with Tom making it through to the final. Tegan Turner-Clarke qualified for the 14/15 yrs 50m Freestyle semi final. Braxston Timm (18) swam in the 17/18 yrs 100m Fly and Lucy Spencer swam the 16/17 yrs 200m IM both qualifying for the semis and then the finals. The Girls 4x200m Free Team (Ellie Faulkner, Lucy Spencer, Molly Grayson & Tegan Turner-Clarke) made it through to the final eventually finishing 4th. In the Boys 15/16 yrs 800m Freestyle Matthew Johnson (15) won his 4th Championship title in 8.10.92!! Tom Sunter (18) finished 4th in the 17/18 yrs 800m Freestyle. In the finals Ellie Faulkner (17) won Bronze in the 16/17 yrs 200m Free with Tegan Turner-Clarke (14) finishing 8th in her final in the 14/15 yrs 200m Freestyle. Others swims today were Jess Kendall (15) in the 14/15 yrs 50m Freestyle, Ricky Speed (18)and Joe Faulkner in the 200m & 800m Freestyle, Joe Faulkner (15) in the 200m, Molly Grayson (14) in the 200m Back, Gabi Hignett (15) in the 200m IM, Lucy Spencer (17) in the 100m Breast and Alex Watson (15) in the 800m Freestyle.
Day 5 and the Championships ended with 15 year old Matthew Johnson winning his 5th Championship title in the 400m IM in 4.22.76 having qualified in 4.32.14!! Lucy Spencer (17) won Bronze in the 16/17 yrs 200m IM and in the Boys 17/18 yrs 200m Freestyle final Tom Sunter (18) finished 6th – a great end to the Championships. Joe Faulkner (15) and Ricky Speed (18) swam in the 400m IM and the Boys 4x100 Medley Team (Matthew Johnson, Ricky Speed, Braxston Timm & Tom Sunter) was in action!!
