Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club took part in a Christmas Gala at Hatfield for the first time this year and came away with a resounding victory. The young team, featuring some swimmers competing in their first ever club gala, achieved a staggering 50 personal best times between them. In fact, every single one of the first ten individual races saw personal records broken.
There were three personal bests each for Jonty Beir-Allen and sister Yasmin, as well as Tom Worrell, Gabrielle Cole, Chloe Worrell and Arthur Woodcock. Lewis Beardsworth topped the PB list with four personal records. The improvements continued through the team, with no less than twenty-eight swimmers achieving at least one PB.
The young relay swimmers made the club’s future prospects look good, showing great promise. The nine year-old boys’ team of Joe Prior, Thushira Kumerage, Benjamin Garrett and Charles Adeleke was victorious in both their freestyle and medley relays.
The nine year-old girls’ team of Paige Ford, Chloe Hall, Samantha Hurst and Megan Pirrie won the medley and came second in the freestyle relays. It was the other way around, with victory in the freestyle and a second in the medley, for U13 girls, Chloe Worrell, Yasmin Beir-Allen, Chloe Ware and Myley Grainge-Lovick.
Robert Sizeland clinched an individual win in the boys’ U13 breaststroke. Jonty Beir-Allen took the U11 boys’ backstroke, as well as a second place in the 50m freestyle. Yasmin Beir-Allen won the U13 girls’ butterfly.
Tom Worrell, in the U11 boys, and Gabrielle Cole, in the u12 girls, scored two second place finishes each. Chloe Ware, Ellen Fender and Arthur Woodcock also swam to second place in their individual races.
Hemel Hempstead emerged as clear winners, giving the club plenty of cause to celebrate at the start of the season.