On Golden Pond!

Once again Tigersharks stamped their authority on the final weekend of the South West District Competition. Tigersharks have returned with their largest ever haul of medals and competition finalists eclipsing any other Wiltshire team and taking the scalps of many of the South West's strongest teams. In total Tigersharks young stars have returned with 10 Gold, 6 Silver and 8 Bronze medals and massive 81 finalists from the four days of competition.

In the Boys 400m Frontcrawl Joshua Wheeler (11) and Alex Jones (14) were both in their usual dominant form as they breezed to victory in their age groups. Dean Williamson, Jason Butt, Briony Merritt, Sophie Roberts, Lauren Jones & Rosie Broad all finished in the top eight. Joshua Wheeler again showed his frontcrawl supremacy when he cruised to gold in the 100m event. Sophie Roberts (10) was outstanding as she snatched silver in the same event amongst a very strong field of young girls. Lauren Jones, Eleanor Hussey, Sophie Hawkins, Kane Baker, Eddie Donmez, Jason Butt and Alex Jones all featured in the finals of this event finishing top eight.

Lauren Jones (11) swam a superb 200m Breaststroke final to move from eighth place to fourth and Ciaran Alstowe (12) was in top form to make the final of his age group and swam a great race to take eighth place.

Kane Baker (11) was supreme in the 200m Backstroke as he powered through the race to record his third National Qualifying time for 2006. Joshua Wheeler recorded yet another personal best time in the same race. James Magness swam a strong race in the 14 years just missing out on the bronze medal. Briony Merrit stormed to yet another gold medal in a dominant showing of backstroke swimming with team mates Sophie Roberts and Rachel Waine taking 4 th and 8 th respectively.

Once again Tigersharks were a force to be reckoned with in the Butterfly events. Briony Merrit swam a great race to take bronze and team mate Rachel Waine (10) placed sixth in the same final. Eleanor Hussey was in top form taking bronze and team mate Joshua Wheeler stole Silver in a great duel with all eight boys. Jason Butt was just piped at the post for Bronze but recorded a superb personal best time. The swim's of the fly events however came from Dean Williamson (14). Williamson lay in fourth place behind 3 very strong fly swimmers going into the final. Williamson powered through the race to snatch bronze and also record his long course National Qualifying time with ease. Also from Hayley Towner who was in fantastic form as she powered to the Silver medal in the girls 13 years age group smashing her personal best time in the process.

In the 200m Individual Medley, Tigersharks were once again all over the finals. In the 10 years age group Briony Merrit placed 5 th and an exhausted Eleanor Hussey cruised to 8 th place in her final. Joshua Wheeler and Jason Butt swam great races to finish in 5 th and 6 th place and Dean Williamson swam a strong race to take 6 th place. Hayley Towner and Sophie Hawkins remained in fine form to the end when they finished in 7 th and 8 th place.

Rosie Broad (12) took on the gruelling 1500m Frontcrawl event and produced a phenomenal swim to take Silver in a time of 19:12.26, with what was a perfectly paced swim throughout, taking 13 year old scalps along the way. Alex Jones (14) found himself in a tumultuous battle with Adam John of Plymouth Leander in the boys 800m Frontcrawl. However Jones proved to be the better and stronger swimmer as he took gold in a time of 8:57.26.

An overall fantastic four days swimming from the Tigersharks swimmers. Tigersharks can now look forward to the National Competition where they have 12 National Age and Youth qualifiers with a massive 42 qualifying times between them. National Qualifiers are:-

Grant Turner, Jazz Carlin, Aaron Lee, Stacey Wood, Natalie Montezuma, Alex Jones, Dean Williamson, Sophie Hawkins, Rosemary Broad, Lauren Jones, Jason Butt & kane Baker.