SWIMMING
Swimming at Sevenoaks continues to improve every year with the addition of new competitions mixing it up with our regular inter-school, county and national galas and maintaining individual opportunities. Our own galas remain successful, and even more schools want to join.
Pre-season training, both before the start of the school year and the Lent term, has proved successful, especially in preparation for the Kent Schools’ Relays in September, our regional qualifier for the English Secondary School Team Finals. At the counties we secured two gold, three silver and two bronze medals across three age groups of boys and girls. The inter boys won the medley and freestyle relay. This led to the ESSA Secondary Schools’ Team Championships at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre in Birmingham( pictured opposite). The swimmers from Years 9 upwards had an excellent trip. All the swimmers improved on their entry rankings and the inter boys team made the final in the medley relay.
A new away fixture this year saw us heading to a two-day event at ACS Cobham, competing against American schools who made the journey across the UK and Europe. It was a superb event: we won 20 medals and the inter boys were the overall winners in their age bracket. It is a great event for our swimmers, having the opportunity to compete as a team across the American schools in Europe at future events.
Strong performances at county level, new competitive opportunities, and a spot at nationals for our inter boys.
At the Kent Secondary Schools Individual Championships we achieved one gold, two silver and two bronze medals, including outstanding performances from Chengze Duan with a gold and bronze medal in 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle. The boys’ team came second overall. The teams performed well at the Tonbridge Cup too – an invitational cup with a gender-blind gala for all ages, so schools put forward their strongest teams – where we secured third place.
Lastly, we took teams from all age groups, both boys and girls, to the Bath and Otter Cup. The girls’ team narrowly missed out on the final. However, with the second session of the day came success in the 4x50m medley relays with the girls and boys making the final.
Jon Yates
84 SPORT REVIEW