Hull Open Meet
Ennerdale Leisure Centre, Hull
Sunday 6th October 2013

Kingston upon Hull swimming club held their first major gala of the new swim season at Ennerdale with this gala being the perfect warm up for the Yorkshire championships which was held the following week.

National Squad

14 year old Shannon McGahey made a magnificent start to the season, walking away ‘literally’ with a hand full of medals – four gold, one silver and a full set of NER qualifying times. She kicked off proceedings with an imperious swim in the 200m backstroke, taking gold in a time of 2:46.41. She backed this up with further first place finishes in the 50m frontcrawl, butterfly and backstroke. A silver for the 200m breaststroke capped off an impressive days work.

14 year old Bailey Hairsine competed in six events and scooped four gold medals for his efforts. In the 200m backstroke he posted a time of 2:17.81 to kick off his medal haul, then went on to claim the same for the 200m butterfly, breaststroke and frontcrawl. 14 year old Hannah Willingham kicked off her season with a bang, taking three gold and three silver medals. First place finishes in the 200m and 50m breaststoke and 200m IM, were backed up with silvers in the 50m and 200m frontcrawl and 50m butterfly.

13 year old Jack Woodcock swam to gold in the 200m frontcrawl in a time of 2:15.53 before continuing a similar success in the 50m breaststoke and 50m frontcrawl. A silver medal finish for the 200m backstroke and a bronze for the 200m IM capped off a concrete start to the year. 14 year old Elliott Stephenson took gold in both the 50m frontcrawl and breaststroke and silver in the 200m frontrcawl, breaststroke and IM. 13 year old Melissa Machin grabbed first place in the 50m frontcrawl and butterfly and then took silvers for the 200m IM and frontcrawl. She then achieved a Yorkshire qualifying time for the 200m backstroke. 14 year old Abigail Malton made a solid start to the season competing in four events, taking bronze medals for the 200m IM and frontcrawl and gaining personal best time across the board.

Regional Squad

Emma Beadle produced 6 medal placed swims, with two gold’s in the 200m backstroke and 200m IM, 3 silver medals from the 200m frontcrawl, 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke and a bronze medal from the 50m frontcrawl. Swimming in the 13 year age group, Darcey Hambly took gold in the 200m and 50m backstroke, silver in the 200m IM and a bronze in the 200m frontcrawl. 16 year old Ellie McKay produced two promising swims in the 200m and 50m backstroke which produced a silver and bronze medal. Breaststroke specialist 18 year old Natalie Moon took silver in the 200m breaststroke.

In the boy events, 17 year old Karmand Kareem produced some positive swims with gold in the 200m frontcrawl and the 200m IM, silver in the 200m backstroke and a bronze in the 50 backstroke. Karmands 13 year old brother Kaso also produced medal place performances, with gold in the 200m breaststroke, silver in the 50m backstroke and butterfly, and a bronze in the 200m freestyle. Sprint specialists James Rodmell and 17 year old Oche Igoche shared the gold medals places, with James taking the 50m frontcrawl and 50m breaststroke, and Oche taking the 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly; both went on to take 2nd and 3rd place in the 200m frontcrawl. At the younger end of the squad, 13 year old Lewis Marsters took gold in the 50m backstroke as well as producing six personal bests.

Junior A Squad

For the junior A squad, Daisy Hill had a magnificent gala coming 2nd place on 200m backstroke and 1st place on her 200m frontcrawl, also qualifying for two Yorkshire times in these races, she took 2nd place in the 200 IM. Hollie Verity had a good gala, coming 2nd place on the 200m backstroke and taking three bronze medals in the 200m breaststroke, 200m frontcrawl and the 200m IM. Zeta Tootle came 3rd in the 50m butterfly, she took 2nd place in the 200m fly and took an impressive 6 seconds off her 200m frontcrawl. Emily Wilkinson swam four races and achieved PBs in all, knocking 3 seconds off her 200m backstroke and 1 second off her 200m breaststroke, freestyle and IM. Megan Batterbee took 1 minute 52 seconds off her 200m backstroke and a small PB of 0.80 off her 50m frontcrawl. Aleah Ross took medals in all of her races, taking silver in 200m back and 50m fly, and two gold medals in 200m freestyle and the 200 IM. Emma Newmarch achieved PBs in 200M backstroke taking 5 seconds off, 200m breaststroke achieving a 10 seconds PB and taking 5 seconds off her 200m IM.

Lewis Collins had an outstanding first gala of the season as he achieved bronze and a Yorkshire time in the 200m frontcrawl, whilst gaining a Yorkshire time in the 200m backstroke, taking the bronze medal and a large PB of 3.66 seconds, and in the 200m IM taking silver with another Yorkshire time, plus a PB of 5.04 seconds. He also gained a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke with a PB of 4.14 seconds. Adam Alcock got off to the season with big PBs knocking 30 seconds off his 200m breaststroke and 11 seconds off 200m back stroke achieving a Yorkshire time, also taking silver in the 200m butterfly with a 7 seconds PB, whilst also taking 1 second off his 200m frontcrawl. Jake Conlon had a good day, gaining 2 PBs, including a great 5 seconds off his 200m back, achieving a 13 year old Yorkshire time.

Junior B Squad

13 year old Luke Taylor set an excellent example gaining personal best in all of his races. He knocked 2.5 seconds off in his 200m backstroke and 4 seconds off in his 200m IM. Luke continued his good form finishing in a time of 2.30.48, a great 5 second personal best in the 200m freestyle and his top finish came in the 200m butterfly, where his massive 20 second personal time of 3.12.22 gained him the bronze medal. 11 year old Alex Everson achieved 3 silver medals in the 200m freestyle, individual medley and backstroke. He also took the bronze medal in 50m breaststroke.

12 year Kennedy Akril gained a personal best time in 200m breaststroke. She claimed the bronze medal in 50m backstroke and swam her way to the silver medal in 50m breaststroke. 11 year old Ruby Willingham took the 6th place medal in 200m backstroke and 50m butterfly. She also gained a bronze in the 50m backstroke.

Junior C Squad

9 year olds Libby Ackrill, Holly McMullen and Amy Kitching all swam well. This was Libby’s first gala, with her 3 gold’s won in the 50m Butterfly, 200m Free and 200m Backstroke. Holly also produced 2 PBs, knocking off an amazing 16 seconds and coming 3rd in the 200m backstroke event, whilst also coming 3rd and showing a 10 second improvement in the 200m frontcrawl. Amy, who left with a handful of her own medals gained gold in the 200m IM and also a silver in the 200m Backstroke. Olivia Bainbridge snatched Gold in the 50m free.

The boys also did well with Ryan Porter aged 10, produced 4/5 PBs, the best of which came from his 200m frontcrawl. He managed to reduce his time by 5 seconds in this race, finishing with 3:01:80. Ben Shipley, age 11, also came away with a PB in 50m backstroke with a new time of 43.98, and also set a new personal record in the 200m frontcrawl. Last but by no means least, Thomas Clapham, aged 11, left Ennerdale with an impressive 5 Pbs! He took the silver medal in the 50m butterfly with a time of 51.19.

Junior D Squad

9 children competed from junior D and they managed to pick up 6 medals placed 1-3, with the star of the day is George Waite. He competed in 5 races, gaining a medal in all including 2nd for his 50m breaststroke, 2nd for his 200m frontcrawl and 2nd for his 200m breaststroke. He also gained 3rd in the 50m frontcrawl and a 5th place in 50 backstrokem all of his times where PB’s. Ben Sawdon gained a 2nd place medal in 50m backstroke and Mathew Blain placed 3rd in both his 50m backstroke and 200m frontcrawl. Catherine Fee gained a 5 second PB in her 50 breaststroke.