First-time 'trippers' shine at the Quays

GUERNSEY Swimming Club returned from the City of Southampton level two sprint meet at the Quays with three gold, one silver, five bronze and 14 top-eight medals. Most impressive of all was Luke Winberg who was presented with a trophy for the top nine-year-old boy by the mayor.

Encouragingly, the young GSC swimmers were lowering their times by an average of three seconds per event and not surprisingly Jocelyn Guille, the GSC coach responsible, was very pleased with their swims.

In recent weeks they had maintained their stamina training while fine-tuning their sprint ability.

All but two of the team of nine and 10-year-olds were competing outside the Channel Islands for the first time.

The opening event was the nine-year-old 50m freestyle.

In the girls' race, Brodie Bayes finished fourth and Ellie Ogier sixth with less than a second separating them.

With medals awarded for a top-eight finish, this was an excellent start for the Guernsey club.

The boys in the same event and age group were then to go even better than the girls, with four swimmers in the top eight. Winberg was third, Aaron Mahieu fourth, Pierce Gregory equal sixth and Alex Penney eighth.

The home team fielded a very strong young side and were well represented on the podium where the mayor of Southampton presented the medals to the top three in each event.

In the 10-year-old girls, GSC had two representatives.

Florence Le Couteur did very well in a large age group in which there were 40 swimmers.

She finished 18th in both the 100m IM and 50m backstroke, 20th in the 50m freestyle and 31st in the 50m breaststroke.

James Hewlett, Dominic O'Brien and Daniel Brittain represented the GSC in the 10-year-old boys' events.

Brittain had the highest placings with 11th in the 50m breaststroke, 12th in the 50m free and 14th both in the 50m fly and 100m IM events.

In the 50m fly in this age group, O'Brien finished 12th, Hewlett 13th and Brittain 14th.

It was the butterfly events that gave the GSC the best results in the nine-year-old group.

Both Ogier and Winberg led from start to finish in their respective races, the former winning by a clear three seconds and the latter by four. Winberg's time of 40.26 was a new meeting best.

All told in the boys, the GSC had five swimmers in the top nine.

Chloe Le Tissier collected a bronze medal in the nine-year-old girls' 50m breaststroke, just out- touching club-mate Bayes by 0.06sec. in 53.46.

Winberg had a fight on his hands against home swimmer Alex Cameron, who led at the halfway mark in the 50m breaststroke.

The Guernsey boy continued to fight down the second length and touched first in 47.44 with Cameron second in 48.99.

Again the club showed its depth of young talent with Harry Andrews finishing fifth and Penney eighth.

In the nine-year-old girls' 50m backstroke, Ogier was a comfortable winner of the bronze medal.

In the equivalent boys' event, Winberg settled for silver a full two seconds behind Cameron of Southampton. The latter's time was also a new meet best.

Gregory continued the medal flow winning bronze. Andrews was fifth and Mahieu seventh.

Meanwhile, the GSC senior swimmers attended Crystal Palace in London during the half-term break for the purpose of a long- course training camp.

They swam twice a day for two hours at a time as well as undertaking land training and covering theory, which included mental preparation, nutrition and race techniques.

Swimmers included in this training camp were those looking towards selection for this summer's NatWest Island Games in Shetland.