The City of Oxford Swimming Club once again successfully defended their position as top club in Oxfordshire and North Bucks by winning the County Championship for a fifth successive year. City finished the championships with a massive 2034 points with City of Milton Keynes in second on 1199.50 and Maxwell third on 907 points. In a close competition, City also retained the top junior club award for the 10-16 years age groups for the sixth consecutive year with 542 points with Maxwell in second on 516 and a resurgent Wantage White Horses in third on 452.50.

Over the course of the county championships City’s swimmers took 17 open county championship and 18 junior county championship titles. In the open championship there were also 15 silver and 16 bronze medals and in the junior championship 18 silvers and 17 bronzes. In the age group events Oxford’s swimmers amassed an amazing 58 gold medals, 53 silver medals and 46 bronzes, together with countless personal bests. Oxford also dominated the top boy and top girl awards with breaststrokers David Murphy and Emily Wood taking the honours.

The final weekend of competition saw Emily Ford (15) take one open and three junior titles in the 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle. These wins take her tally across the championships to an impressive two open and six junior titles and in a sensational swim, she broke the junior county record in the 100m butterfly in the process in a time of 1:02.50.

In an Oxford 1-2-3, Emily Wood won the open championship in the 200m breaststroke; Natasha Fenton was second with Maia Little 3^rd. Wood also won the open 50m breaststroke, with Little 3^rd whilst Fenton won the junior title in the 200m breaststroke and was awarded second in the junior 50m breaststroke. Emily Wood also won open 2^nd in the 100m IM.

Ellie Millington (17) won the open 200m freestyle with Emily Wood second. Megan Smit (14) took second on the junior podium in the same event. Kate Mills (19) took the open title in the 200m butterfly. Millington also took open second on the 50 freestyle podium.

Other podium finishes were: Dorothy Goodgame (16), 3^rd in the open and 2^nd junior in the 200m butterfly. Delphine Little (14) won junior third in the 200m butterfly and shared the second place on the podium with Georgina Butler (16) in the 50m freestyle. Mimi Morley Iszatt won junior third in the 100m backstroke.

For the boys, Daniel Jenkins (16) won two junior championships in the 200 IM and the 50m backstroke as well as four other trips to the podium over the weekend. These successes bring Jenkins’ tally to an amazing eight junior titles plus one open title over the four weekends of the championships.

Callum Smart (17) comfortably won the open 200m IM title and took second in the open 100m breaststroke – he appeared on the open podium an impressive six times. In his only swim of the championships David Murphy (19) took the 100m breaststroke open title, with Tobermory Mackay-Champion (19) third in the open and Billy Wotton (14) and Arnold Marton (16) second and third on the junior podium respectively.

In the backstroke events, Oxford had a strong showing: Lewis Gilchrist (17) won his first open title in the 200m backstroke with Smart third. Nicholas Skelton (14) won junior second in the 200m event and junior third in the 50m backstroke.

For the multi-class disability events, Chris Currie (21) won twice in the 100m freestyle and the 50m backstroke whilst Libby Gotta (13) and Lily Cooke (11) won the 200m freestyle and the 50 backstroke respectively. Over the course of the championships, Gotta broke an amazing five deaf age-group records.

Showing the club’s strength in depth, Oxford dominated the relay events, winning three out of four available titles:

• The Oxford A junior girls’ 4 x 50m medley team of Mimi Morley Izsatt, Natasha Fenton, Emily Ford and Georgina Butler won their title in a new junior county record time of 1:59.84. The Oxford B team (Jennifer Burrell, Evie Mclean, Tiana Porter and Delphine Little) also joined them on the podium in third place.
• The older girls’ medley A team of Emily Ford, Emily Wood, Kate Mills and Ellie Millington won the open title and again the B team of Shannon Motha, Maia Little, Delphine Little and Elizabeth Oliver were on the podium in third place.
• In an exciting race, the Oxford A junior boys (Nicholas Skelton, Gabriel Agostini, Ewan McBain, Daniel Jenkins) won their 4 x 50 freestyle title in a dead heat with the Milton Keynes team (1.41.61).
• The Oxford A team of Ewan Springett, Adam Pinfold, Callum Smart and Daniel Jenkins were awarded third place in the 4 x 50 freestyle medley.

In the age group events, Oxford won 19 gold, 26 silver and 19 bronze in the hotly contested finals sessions. The results from the weekend were:

Nicholas Skelton (14) had a fantastic weekend, taking a medal in almost every event over the weekend, including two golds in the 50m and 200m backstroke; Billy Wotton (14) also impressed, winning two age group golds in the 200IM and the 100m breaststroke. Both boys also featured on the junior 16/U podium. Lachlan Middleton (11), competing in his first championships, won one gold in the 50m butterfly, plus three silver and a bronze. Max Bolcato (15) also had a successful weekend, winning golds in the 200m IM and the 50m butterfly and Jamie Conway (13) won gold in the 200m butterfly.

For the girls, both Rosie Hilton-Dew (12) and Illizane Pinfold (13) took gold in the 50m and silver in the 200m breaststroke. Evie McLean (13) won the 50m freestyle in style, plus taking three further bronze medals. Delphine Little (14) also won gold in the same event, plus two silver and a bronze; she too featured on the junior podium and Gretel Goodgame (13) took gold in the 200m freestyle and silver in the 200m butterfly.

Other age group medallists were:

Callum Smart, David Murphy, Delphine Little, Dorothy Goodgame, Ellie Millington, Emily Ford, Emily Wood, Erin Gilchrist, Ethan Bird, Evie McLean, Gabriel Agostini, George Rudd, Kate Mills, Lewis Gilchrist, Lucy Gotta, Maia Little, Megan Smit, Mimi Morley Iszatt, Nina Brown, Oliver Conway, Tasha Fenton, Theo Cooke, Tiana Porter, Toby Mackay-Champion.

Please note, all county records are subject to ratification.