‘Best ever’ championship for Thame Swimming Club

THAME Swimming Club had its most successful Oxfordshire & North Bucks (ONB) County Swimming Championships during February and March, with a record number of 35 swimmers representing the Club in at least one or more events, under the inspirational leadership of Head Coach Ian Blyth.

Whilst all the swimmers performed strongly, smashing a number of their personal best times, it was Ella Simms, Marcus Birmingham, Nacho Mendi, Jo Hewett and Amy Haarburger who came home as finalists,  finishing in the top eight in the whole county. Nacho Mendi also qualified for the Regional Championships with his 50 metres Butterfly,  as did Marcus though unfortunately he will miss out on the ASA South East Regional competition as his birthday is two days too early! Marcus not only achieved top eight positions, he achieved two Bronze and one Silver medal, as well as other finalist medals – a great performance!

Thame’s own Jo Hewett entered three disability events and took three first places, a fantastic achievement. Amy Haarburger made the final in three events and not only PB’d in the heats but also in the finals. Nacho Mendi also made the finals in two events whilst Grace Gilmore received a finalists medal and Ella Simms also picked up a finalist’s medal.

The boys under 14s.  200 metre Free relay team, consisting of James Newton, Kymir Ibragimov, Marcus Birmingham and Ben Williams, came fouth fastest overall, a tremendous effort given they came 15th last year!

The full list of Thame SC swimmers for the 2014 championships was: Manas Bapat, Marcus Birmingham, Emma Borme, Phoebe Brown, Georgia Cahill, Maya Camp, Hallam Cozier, Lucy Day, Ines Devitt, Lydia Devitt, Tabitha Dodds, Hannah Ekerold, Will Finch, Sophia Fisher, Lauren Gibbs, Grace Gilmore, James Goetz, Thomas Goetz, Amy Haarburger, Hannah Hawken, Joanne Hewett, Kymir Ibragimov, Nacho Mendi, James Newton, Rachel Newton, Rory Price, Rory Pridmore, Hazel Randall, Maisie Randall, Elliot Riley-Brown, Florence Savage, Ella Simms, Tally Simms, Rebecca Smith and Ben Williams.

As ever, the county championships could not run without the effort of the volunteers, and Thame SC provided a number of poolside volunteers and also officials for the event. Many thanks to them.

Thame Swimming Club is a competitive swimming club and should you be interested in joining, please contact our Membership Secretary at: secretary@thameswimmingclub.co.uk or see www.thameswimmingclub.co.uk for details of the club and how to join.

SOURCE: Contributed