Saturday 25th/Sunday 26th January 2020, The Venue, Borehamwood

The 3rd and last weekend of Herts County Champs 2020 saw many Hertford swimmers compete either in individual or relay events.

On the Saturday it was all about butterfly and backstroke and the club fielded Archie Andelin, Ciaran Whatmore, Ellie Sopala, Isla Cavill, Kye Parsonson and Laura Malagoli.

Ellie Sopala (12) and Laura Malagoli (13) competed in the 50 fly. Ellie swam with great rhythm to achieve a Personal Best (PB) – 39.83 – and place herself 21st. Laura swam just off her PB to touch wall in 35.87 and achieve 13th place. Both girls are working on their stroke timing and are showing significant improvements. I look very much forward to seeing further progress in the very next future!

Archie Andelin (17), has been working hard on increasing his swimming power: he swam the 50 back in a time of 31.02 (PB) and coming 17th in the 16&over age group, 8th 17yrs old in the County. Well done Archie, keep up the great work!

Although still 15yrs old, Ciaran Whatmore raced in the 16&Over age group (due to age at 31st December): he swam for the first time ever in under 32 seconds, touching wall in 31.57 (PB). This allowed Ciaran to finish 21st in the 16&Over age group and 4th 16yrs old in the County. Fantastic achievement!

Kye Parsonson (15) also swam the 50 back: over the past 3 weeks Kye has been focusing on improving his underwater skills, which helped him greatly during the race to finish 12th in 32.83. Well done Kye!

Isla Cavill (13) continued her streak of excellent races by clocking a PB in the 200 back, and swimming with good tactical skills. Isla recorded a time of 2;51.65 to finish 14th in the County. Well done Isla!

On the Sunday it was relays time! An impressive 12 teams and 31 swimmers took part in this enjoyable day of team racing.

Hertford SC fielded, 2 mixed teams (2 girls + 2 boys), 4 girls teams, and 6 boys teams:

All swimmers involved had great fun and showed fantastic support to the TEAM: after all the hard work of the past few weeks, it was a very well deserved reward for all of them. 

This year’s County Championships have shown through and through how far all Hertford swimmers have come: they keep working with consistency and positive attitude and are getting stronger and stronger. The team spirit they have demonstrated during the competition is consistent with the attitude they show in training and contributes to making their swimming experience even more enjoyable. This shows that truly #weareoneteam !

Last but not least, I would like to extend a big thank you to all parents, volunteers and officials for their support: without your continued encouragement, commitment and dedication none of this would be possible for our swimmers. Thank you!

Best wishes

Manuela