RTW Monson make a splash at the British Summer Championships

RTW Monson’s swimmers headed to Ponds Forge pool in Sheffield last week to compete in the British Summer Championships. The twenty-two athletes faced a gruelling programme of events throughout the week and returned home with an impressive medal haul.

Flying the flag on day one was Hayden Annan, in the 1500m freestyle, who swam a controlled race throughout and finished sixth in Britain in the 17 years age group.

Day two saw the arrival of Denys Mialkovskyi, who joined Hayden Annan, and both booked their spots in the 17 years 200m freestyle final, where they dismantled their previous personal bests. Hayden claimed the silver medal, only 0.11 seconds off first place, and Denys just missed out on the medals, in fourth.

Aubry Armada Bennett posted a new personal best in the 100m breaststroke of 1:08.24 to finish the seventeenth fastest 16-year-old in Britain.

Emilia Oliver swam in the 50m breaststroke, finishing in twelfth position in the 16 years age group. Amalie Smith, finished eighth in the breaststroke final, and went to on attack the 400m freestyle final, touching the wall in 4:20.53 and taking home RTW Monson’s second silver of the day.

Tom Hawkins and Hayden Annan were first up on day three, in the 200m butterfly, digging deep to finish sixteenth and eighteenth respectively in the 17 years age group.

In the 800m freestyle, Hayden Annan took to the pool once more, where he touched the wall in a time of 8.22.40 and claimed the bronze medal.

Jess Gable, Emilia Oliver, Hannah Murphy and Amalie Smith all raced in the 100m backstroke, with Amalie and Hannah booking a spot in the finals. Amalie went on to finish fifth and Hannah came in tenth, clocking up a sub 66 second finish.

The mens’ 17 years 100m backstroke final saw Denys Mialkovskyi touch the wall in fifth place, with only half a second separating third and seventh position.

Finally, after a very long 13-hour day, in the women’s 200m individual medley, Hannah Murphy and Emilia Oliver give absolutely everything that they could in the 17-and 16-year-old finals, finishing seventh and eighth respectively. But RTW Monson’s newest British Champion was crowned, with Amalie Smith once again dominating the 15 years 200m IM, touching the wall in first place and taking home gold.

A busy day four saw Callie-Ann Warrington in the MC 100m freestyle. As Callie continues her preparation in the run up to the Paris Paralympics, she managed to lower her personal best time to 61.67 and amass the most points to claim the gold.

Amalie Smith swam brilliantly once again to claim two fourth place finishes in the 200m butterfly and 50m freestyle finals.

Sprinters Hannah Murphy, Jessica Gable and Hayden Annan all swam well in the tough outside lanes in the respective 17-year-old 50m & 100m freestyle finals, placing eighth, tenth and tenth respectively.

And RTW Monson’s super 4x100m freestyle team qualified for the finals in tenth place. After a little rejig in order for the final, it saw Amalie, Emilia, Bella, and Lilia all swim faster and elevate their position to finish 8th in Britain.

Sixteen RTW Monson swimmers took the pool at Ponds Forge on day six. Opening up with the women’s 200m freestyle, Lilly Deller finished in twenty-first in the 15-year age group, and in the same age group Amalie Smith went on to the final to finish in second. Hannah Murphy also secured her fourth final of the week in the 200m freestyle, where she moved herself up to sixth in Britain in the 17 years age group.

Fern Sneddon swam a strong race in the MC 100m breaststroke touching the wall in 1:49.76, finishing in fourteenth place.

The 200m backstroke saw Julia Elvidge’s first appearance ever at these championships as one of the few 13-year-olds who qualified in a tough double banded 13/14 age group. She made it to the finals where she finished seventh, as the fastest 13-year-old in Britain.

Jessica Gable finished fifth in the 17 years 200m backstroke final, and Maddie Hind came in eighth in the 15 years 50m butterfly final, dipping under the 29 second barrier.

As fatigue started to kick in, Chengze Duan and Denys Mialkovskyi swam in the 17 years 100m butterfly at 8pm, which saw an extremely controversial start. Movement on the blocks meant a very long hold, but they did their best, with Denys finishing in sixth place and Chengze storming out down the first 50, enough to hold on for the silver.

Another young swimmer, Bella Jones, competed in her first ever British individual race finishing sixteenth in the 13/14-year 100m freestyle. In the same event Jess Gable finished twenty first, with Hannah Murphy booking her fifth final of the week, where she went on to finish ninth.

Amalie Smith showed her diversity, toughness and class, taking gold in both the 400m IM and 50m backstroke finals. The 400m IM was an outstanding race swimming a new personal best time of 4:49.11, faster than anyone else in the event of any age, and still only 14 years old!

Denys Mialkovskyi finished just outside the medals in the 400m IM in fourth place. And Hannah Murphy and Ruben Cowley swam in the 50m & 100m freestyle finishing in ninth and tenth place.

There was plenty of drama on the final day, where nine of RTW Monson’s swimmers qualified for the evening’s finals.

Hayden Annan tackled the 400m freestyle, where he managed to dip under the four-minute barrier for the first time, recording 3:59.39 and taking home the silver medal.

Both Fern Sneddon and Callie-Ann Warrington swam in the MC 50m freestyle, with Fern coming in tenth, and Callie narrowly missing out of the British record for the S10 category by 0.03 seconds, but securing first place.

Emilia Oliver was in hunt for a medal throughout the 16 years 200m breaststroke, but eventually running out of steam to finish in fifth place, despite battling illness throughout the week.

Denys Mialkovskyi finally ended his medal search to collect a bronze in the 200m backstroke. And Chengze Duan swam a lifetime best in the 17 years 50m butterfly, agonisingly finishing in fourth.

Maddie Hind and Ilana Nightingale-Ellis were brilliant in the 15-years and 16-years 100m butterfly finals, finishing in fourth and eighth place respectively. Amalie Smith rounded off an incredible Championships, which saw her clock up a total of 25 races and 12 finals, by claiming the silver in the 100m Butterfly and taking RTW Monson’s medal haul to five golds, six silvers and two bronze.

And it wasn’t just the swimmers who walked away with accolades. RTW Monson’s head coach, Adam Naylor was voted coach of the day during the event, a bittersweet moment as he prepares to end his four-year tenure at the club after the English Summer Championships this week.