The 2015 Herts County Championships concluded with 22 different swimmers of all ages winning 30 gold and 47 silver and bronze medals. There were also two Championship records, 34 new or improved Regional Qualifying Times, 160 personal best times and 19 new Club records – we can safely say that the 2015 County Championships were good for Hemel!
With the 2015 Herts County Championships drawing to a close Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club is celebrating its most successful Championships in memory. With a record 71 swimmers having qualified and nearly 400 swims, the club was a team with a real presence at this year’s Counties.
Over the course of the Championships the Hemel team amassed a staggering 76 medals including 30 Gold, 21 Silver and 25 Bronze medals. Many clubs rely on a small number of swimmers for their medal haul, but this was not the case for Hemel with 13 different swimmers becoming County Champion in their age groups in events ranging from 50 metres Breaststroke to 1500 metres freestyle. Overall there were 22 different medallists from the Club during the Championships ranging from age 9 up to the Open.
Other highlights included two County Age Group records for Charlie Rayner in the 13 year old category for 50 and 100 Breaststroke, as well as 29 Top 8 finishes in the extremely tough Open category, which included an amazing 13 medals. There was a clear belief in the swimmers in expecting to get final places this year, with some Open finals having 3 swimmers from Hemel as the Club showed its strength in depth in this category.
There were 24 new & 10 improved Regional Qualifying Times for Hemel swimmers as the season builds to the next level of the East Region Championships in early summer. These included 3 new first time qualifiers in Alice Fender, Eleanor Bevan and Jonny Farrow as well as a first qualifying this season for Matt Sherriff making it an ever increasing record total of 24 qualifiers. There were also tantalising near misses within a fraction of a second for Keelin McKenna and Ashley Coombs.
A staggering 160 PBs were set over the course of the Championships. Away from the medallists there were significant improvements made across of range of events by Leanne Abrey, Milly Anderton, Reuben Balch, Ashley Coombs, Billie Grant (who remarkably improved in each of her 11 swims), Shona McKenna, Harrison Newbury-Kemp and Shaminah Sherwani-Keeling.
No fewer than 19 new Club records were set; details will follow but again they are spread across boys and girls, all age groups, and some of the records broken were set over 10 years ago.
Congratulations to all of the swimmers who competed, as well as to Justin and his coaching team for producing the Club’s most successful County Championships ever. The full list of medallists can be found below.
2015 County Medals
Gold 30, Silver 21 and Bronze 25
Gold Medallists & County Champions
Holly Robinson – 50 Back, 50 Free, 50 & 200 Breast, 100 IM (9 years)
Georgia Purkis – 100 & 200 Breast (12 years)
Charlie Rayner – 50 Fly, 100 Fly, 50, 100 & 200 Breast, 50,100 & 400 Free, 200 IM (13 years)
Max Jelfs – 1500 Free (13 years)
Emily Jelfs – 50 Free 100 Free (16 years)
Grace Rayner – 200 Breast (16 years)
Aimee Abrey – 100 & 200 Back (16 years)
Joshua Gains – 200 Back & 200IM (16 years)
Jacob Hutchings – 400 IM (16 years)
Jack Christie – 50 & 100 Breast (16 years)
Matt Sherriff – 200 Free (17 years)
Robert Jennings – 400 IM (17 years)
Freddie Woodcock – 50 Fly (open)
Silver Medallists
Elizabeth Kelly – 200 Breast (9 years)
Millie Anderton – 50 Back (10 years)
Luke Pestaille – 50 Fly (11 years)
Georgia Purkis – 800 Free, 50 Breast (12 years)
Max Jelfs – 200 & 400 Free (13 years)
Aimee Abrey – 50 Back & 200 IM (16 years)
Grace Rayner – 50 & 100 Breast (16 years) & 200 Breast (open)
Joshua Gains – 50 & 100 Back (16 years)
Jack Christie -200 Breast (16 years)
Matt Sheriff – 50 & 100 Free, 50 Fly (17 years)
Robert Jennings – 100 Fly (17 years)
Tom Sheriff – 200 & 1500 Free (open)
Bronze Medals
Libby Grant – 50 Back & 200 Free (9 Years)
Millie Anderton – 50 fly (10 years)
Georgia Purkis – 200 & 400 Free (12 years)
Max Jelfs – 200 IM, 200 Back & 200 Fly (13 years)
Charlie Rayner – 100 & 200 Breast (Junior Championship)
Aimee Abrey – 100 Free & 200 Free (16 years) & 100 Back (open)
Joshua Gains – 200 Back
Grace Rayner – 50 & 100 Breast (open)
Paige Wilding – 50 & 100 Breast, 200 & 400 IM (17 years)
Matt Sheriff – 50 Free (open)
Lois Moore – 50 Back & 100 Free (open)
Tom Sheriff – 100 Fly, 400 Free & 400IM (open)