City of Oxford swimmers amassed a magnificent seven open gold medals at the South East Regional Winter Championships held in Portsmouth on the 5th and 6th November. The open championship gold medallists were David Murphy in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events in 28.00, 59.83 and 2.13.27 respectively. Kate Mills in the 50m and 100m butterfly in 28.05 and 1.02.25; Emily Nisbet in the 200m Butterfly in 2.15.75; and Emily Wood in the 200m breaststroke in 2.27.99. Murphy also took bronze medals in the 200m and 400m individual medley (2.05.99 and 4.26.28 respectively) with Wood taking silver in the 100m breaststroke (1.09.79). All four swimmers have subsequently been selected for the South East Region team to compete at the Fédération Franҫaise de Natation, Golden Tour Camille Muffat in Nice, France from 2nd to 6th February 2017 (one of the most important pre-Olympic meets, attended by world class swimmers).
Callum Smart added Junior Championship golds in the 50m breaststroke (29.23) and 100m breaststroke, the latter in an Oxfordshire & North Bucks Junior County Record of 1.02.81. Smart’s times also saw him take silver and bronze respectively in the Open category. Lewis Gilchrist took silver in the 200m junior backstroke (2.07.73) and bronze in the 100m backstroke (1.00.13) Maia Little added a bronze medal in the junior 100m breaststroke in 1.12.83 with Connor Bryan also getting bronze in the junior 200m breaststroke in 2.20.65.
Welsh Capital Open Meet 2016
In a busy weekend in the competition schedule, City of Oxford also had a large contingent of 84 swimmers at Cardiff International Pool for the Welsh Capital Open Level 2 Meet 2016, 4th to 6th November. City took ‘Top Club Award’ from a field of 23 clubs and scooped a superb 27 gold medals!
There were also copious personal bests, silver and bronze medals gained, county considered and accepted times achieved, records smashed and skills sharpened during three days of intense competition. City swimmers dominated the blocks in the finals of the 100m freestyle.
City’s most successful swimmers included Delphine Little awarded ‘top girl’ with medals in 200m IM, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 200m backstroke in the girls 12-13 age group category. Evie McLean, age 12, broke the Welsh Capital Open Meet record for 50m breaststroke with a time of 35.74. Libby Gotta, age 12, broke six Deaf Age Group swimming records in 50m, 100m and 200m breastroke, 200m IM, 100 fly and 200m backstroke.
Other gold medallists were: Emily Ford, 14-15 years category 50m back, 50m fly, 200m IM, 100m back, Billy Wotton, 13-14 years 200m free, 50m breast, Daniel Jenkins, 15-16 years 200m free, 400m free, Adam Pinfold, 15-16 years 50m free, 100m free, Georgina Butler, 14-15 years 200m IM, 100m free, George Rudd, 13-14 years 400m IM, Max Bolcato, 13-14 years 50m fly, Dotty Goodgame, 14-15 years 200m fly, Gabriel Agostini, 13-14 years 50m free, Mimi Morley Iszatt, 12-13 years 50m back, Shannon Motha, 16 years and over 50m back, Megan Smit, 12-13 years 400m free, Weiyi Tan, 16 years and over 200m IM, Lucy Gotta 12-13 years 400m IM, Max Underwood, 15-16 years 200m fly, Nick Skelton, 13-14 years 50m back, Daniel McNamara, 13-14 years 400m free, Lily Cooke, 9-11 years Multi-Class category 100m breast.
Full results are available from the City of Cardiff Swimming Club website.
[Several of City’s winning team at the Welsh Capital Open Meet]