| The 30 swimmers and 8 adult helpers of Hemel Hempstead B travelled to Borehamwood to participate in the second round of the Division 2 Herts Major League. The team outperformed their swims in the previous round setting 2 new club records and 15 personal best times, with 39 top three finishes including 11 first places out of 49 events, finishing third overall on the night. |  |
The team racked up eight individual wins from Ellen Fender (Open age group, 100m free) setting the tone in the first event along with Jonny Farrow (U16 100m fly), Seyi Bankole (U14 100m Breaststroke), Hannah Bennett (Open 100m Backstroke) a life-time best time beating her own age group record, Charlotte Hingston (U16 100m free), Heidi Gibbens (Open 100m Breaststroke) also beating her own age group record, Kyle Holmes (Open 100m Breaststroke) and Amber Stratford (U16 100m Breaststroke).
There were three relay first places; starting the boys off fast were the Open men’s 100m medley relay (Samuel Hutchings, Kyle Holmes, Jonathan Farrow & Christopher Cox), the U16 women’s 100m medley relay (Charlotte Hingston, Amber Stratford, Lois Emery & Rayne Marsh) and the Open women’s 100m freestyle relay (Heidi Gibbens, Hannah Bennett, Ellen Fender & Charlotte Hingston).
The team’s performance was further strengthened by five individual 2nd places, three 2nd place relay teams, seven individual 3rd places and three 3rd place relay teams.
15 swimmers swam personal best times, Kizzie Beckwith (U12 50m back) -1.51 and (U12 50m breaststroke) -0.25, Lois Emery (U16 100m Butterfly) -0.09, Samuel Hutchings (Open 100m Backstroke) -5.04, Dylan Kennell, (U12 50m breaststroke) -2.17, Amelie Perrault (U14 50m Butterfly) -5.36, Daniel Keates (U14 50m Butterfly) -1.27, Caitlin Walters (U12 25m Butterfly) -1.13, and (U12 50m Freestyle) -0.94, Matthieu Perrault (U12 25m Butterfly) -1.32 and (U12 50m Freestyle) -0.36, Rayne Marsh (Open 100m Butterfly, who stepped up to swim in an older age group) -2.71, and Elliot Davies in the final individual event (U14 100m Backstroke) -6.18.
The team performance would not have been complete without great contributions from the rest of the team; Maisie Adams, Fenner Balch, Neil Brevern, Mabel Coldwell, Ben Davies, Elliott Hutchings, Svetlana Nanda, Mason O’Brien, Tyler O’Brien, Isabella O’Leary and Emily Young, without whom the team would not have had such success, with special mention of Jonathan Farrow and Charlotte Hingston who each swam in six races after being asked to swim up an age group.
Finally of course thanks to lead coach Alan Doyle, who was a constant source of support, encouragement and advice for all the swimmers who took part in the competition together with all the other poolside helpers.
With great swims all round the team managed to hold second place for much of the evening, ultimately coming in third. HHSC B will come back even stronger for the third and final round next month.