During the weekend of 1st and 2nd December, 24 Senior Department and 2 Prep Department pupils joined the squad of 35 swimmers from Saint Felix School Swimming Club and travelled to Sheffield for the annual Snow Frills Long Course Open Meet, many racing in the prestigious venue of Ponds Forge, which hosts the annual National Championships, for the first time.
The whole team was inspired to swim fast and achieve some quality early season long-course (50m pool length) racing. The results were impressive with over 75% of swims being Personal Bests (PB’s), with 79 medals won (46 Gold, 19 Silver & 15 Bronze), 191 Suffolk County Qualification times and 63 East Region Qualifying times were also achieved.
The top medal winner was Sonia Tumiotto (17) who picked up 7 gold medals from each event she swam, also swimming 5 PB’s. Closely following Sonia was William Ellard (12) who picked up 6 gold medals and 1 bronze medal. William also swam PB’s in each event in the 12 year age-group: Lazar Nemeth picked up gold in all 3 breaststroke events, with Oscar Cole picking up a silver and bronze medal. 12year old Clara Watson-Flowers won 5 gold medals and a silver medal with numerous PB’s across the weekend.
In the 13years age group, Marin De Villard won all 3 backstroke events, while Marcus Moscuzza won 2 gold, 2 silver and a bronze and Noni Thole winning a gold, 2 silver and a bronze.
14year old Joab Carr and Natalie Sanford won 4 golds each, with Joab also picking up a bronze medal. Delvin Barick won 2 gold and 3 bronze medals and Kiara Jessop picked up a 50m breaststroke bronze medal with several strong swims and PB’s
In the 15/16years age-group, Owen Webster won 3 gold and 2 bronze medals and Goscha Gorovoj won 2 gold, 2 silver and a bronze medal.
Other swimmers that attended were Matilda Williams, Isla Webster, Rose Webster, Ava Lines, Keanan Cross, Joshua Stephens, Samuel Stephens, Eirinn Cross, Maia Tumiotto, Chichi Zengeni, Daniel White, Smriti Gokarn.