Gold Bonanza for Oliver as CASA Swimmers Produce Best Ever Results

CASA win 26 medal haul at North East Region Swimming Championships

Cleethorpes & Scunthorpe Aquatics (CASA) confirmed its position as the top performance swimming club in the area with a stunning haul of 26 medals at the recent North East Region Age Group Championships held at Sheffield’s Pond Forge complex.

The annual championships were held over the weekends of 7^th/8^th June and 14^th/15^th June and top age group swimmers from the whole of the NE region, covering Humberside up to the Scottish border and across to the Pennines, were competing. Girls from 10 to 13 years and boys 10 to 14 years who had achieved the strict qualifying times were eligible to take part and a total of thirty CASA swimmers qualified. This made CASA one of the largest teams represented and the massed ranks of swimmers made an impressive sight on poolside.

The CASA team performed fantastically well reaching 98 finals and going on to win 11 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze medals. The star of the CASA team was ten year old Oliver Webster who competed in a total of eleven events and came away with a massive haul of ten gold medals and one silver which is one of the most impressive displays ever seen by a first time competitor at a regional championship. These results exceeded everyone’s expectations and the excitement started from the very first event as described below.

Day One

The first event of the Championships was the boy’s 1500m freestyle with Thomas Paine, Tobias Butler and Kieran Skinner representing CASA. The coach had challenged them to give the team a good start and they certainly delivered with all three boys smashing their previous personal best times. Kieran (12) completed the event in 20min 9.85 sec a 34 sec pb, Tobias (13) in 18 min 7.36 sec a 44 sec pb to win bronze and achieving his National Qualification Time (NQT) in the process and Thomas (13) in 17 min 36.32 sec a 47 sec pb to win silver and achieving his first ever NQT. The coach and the rest of the team were going bananas on poolside encouraging the boys on and this set the scene for the best ever Regional Championships in the club’s 32 year history.

The rest of the first day saw big personal best performances from nearly every swimmer and numerous final appearances. In the next event, the girls 400 IM, three eleven year old CASA swimmers; Savannah Cheung, Courteney Elford and Georgia Cragg, qualified for the final. In the same event Sophie Long and Leah Altoft reached the final in the 12 years and 13 years age group respectively.

In the following event, the boys 200m butterfly, Oliver Webster won the first of his many golds with a time of 2 min 49.41 sec in the heat (10 year old boys and girls do not do the finals) and both Callum Gladding and Thomas Paine qualified for the final. Later that day in the final, Callum also achieved his first ever NQT with a time of 2min 44.04 sec.

Other events that day were the girls 100m backstroke with Georgia Cragg and Savannah Cheung making the final, the boys 100m breaststroke with Oliver Webster winning his second gold of the day and Joshua Jones and Liam Kirby making the final. In the final later that day Joshua Jones won a silver medal in a pb time of 1 min 25.04 sec. The last event was the girls 200m freestyle with Sophie Long making the final and achieving her NQT with a time of 2 min 17.39 sec.

After all the heats were finished it was the boys 4x200m freestyle relay and the CASA team of Thomas Paine (13), Tobias Butler (13), Callum Gladding (11) and Oliver Webster (10) came a very creditable eighth considering this event is for boys up to 14 and many teams had a full compliment of 14 year olds.

Day Two

In the first event of the second day, the girls 800m freestyle, nearly every swimmer pulverised their previous best times. Of particular note was a 45 second pb by Courtney Elford, a 36 second pb by Zoe Lansley-Hogg and achievement of NQT’s by Georgia Cragg and Sophie Long.

The next event, the boys 400m IM, saw Oliver back on the gold trail and Joshua Jones, Kieran Skinner, Thomas Paine and Tobias Butler all making the final with Thomas going on to win the silver medal in the 13 years age group. Later that day in the girls 100m breaststroke Georgia Cragg and Caitlin Bower qualified for the eleven years final with Georgia going on to win silver in a NQT of 1 min 25.94 sec. In the 13 years age group Leah Altoft and Lauren York both made the final with Leah achieving her NQT in the heat and going on to win bronze in the final with a further improved time of 1 min 17.82 sec.

The girls 4 x 100m freestyle relay team of Sophie Long, Zoe Lansley-Hogg, Lauren York and Leah Altoft were up next producing a great performance with strong swims throughout the team. In an exciting finish CASA’s Leah Altoft overtook the Newcastle swimmer in front to finish in 6^th place.

Day Three

After the triumphs of the first weekend it was hard to imagine that a repeat could be on the cards but in the first event of the third day, the boys 800m freestyle, Tobias Butler swam like a demon to produce an astonishing 30 second pb, secure his National time and win the gold medal.

Ten year old Maisie Legge kept the medal winning process going by producing a six second pb in the girls 400m freestyle to record a time of 5 min 22.3 seconds and win the silver medal. In other age groups, Georgia Cragg, Sophie Long and Zoe Lansley-Hogg all made the final with Sophie going on to achieve her National time in the final with a time of 4 min 49.8 sec.

In the girls 200m breaststroke Georgia Cragg achieved her National time in the heats with a pb of 3 min 4.95sec and along with Caitlin Bower, Leah Altoft and Lauren York made the finals of the event. Georgia and Leah both just missing out on a medal in fourth place in their respective age groups.

In the last individual event of the day, the 200m IM, Thomas Paine won a bronze medal with a time of 2 min 24.12 sec and in the same event Joshua Jones was desperately unlucky to miss out on achieving his National time by only three one hundredths of a second.

Other finalists on the third day were Thomas Paine (100m freestyle and 200m backstroke), Callum Gladding (200m IM), Kieran Skinner (200m IM), Molly Unwin (100m butterfly) and Sophie Long (100m butterfly).

A hard earned sixth place was won in the third day relay event, the girls 4x100m medley, with the CASA team represented by Georgia Cragg on backstroke, Leah Altoft on breaststroke, Sophie Long on butterfly, and Zoe Lansley-Hogg on the freestyle leg.

Day Four

The last day started with another National time being achieved by Georgia Cragg in the 1500m freestyle with a time of 19 min 56.27 sec and a bronze medal for Sophie Long in the 12 year age group with a time of 18 min 59.67 sec which improved on her previous time that had already qualified her for the Nationals. Fantastic personal best times were achieved by Courtney Elford and Zoe Lansley-Hogg with Zoe just missing out on a medal in fourth place.

In the boys 400m freestyle, Oliver Webster won another gold in a National qualifying time of 4min 55.77 sec and Callum Gladding, Thomas Paine and Tobias Butler all made the final. In the 11 year age group final Callum achieved his National time breaking 5 minutes for the first time in 4 min 58.12 sec.

In the girls 200m backstroke, Maisie Legge won her second medal of the championships getting bronze in a time of 2 min 53.73 sec. In the eleven year age group Georgia Cragg and Savannah Cheung made the final with Savannah missing her National time by about half a second. The girls were drawn next to each other in the final and clearly helped each other as Savannah achieved her first National qualification with a time of 2min 42.11 sec and Georgia won a bronze medal in a pb time of 2 min 40.54 sec.

Other finalists on the last day were Sophie Long (100m freestyle, 200m backstroke & 200m IM), Katie Over (100m freestyle), Callum Gladding (100m butterfly), Kieran Skinner (100m butterfly & 200m breaststroke), Liam Kirby (200m breaststroke), Sophie Long (200m backstroke & 200m IM), Leah Altoft (200m IM), Georgia Cragg (200m IM) and Joshua Jones (200m breaststroke).

Chief Coach, Nathan Hilton said “The regional championships are the second highest level of competition that UK age group swimmers take part in and the North East region is recognised as one of the strongest in the country. The championships started with Thomas Paine recording his first ever National Time and ended with Savannah Cheung achieving her first ever National Time. In between was a consistent stream of achievement and I am so proud of all the swimmers. Although Oliver and the other medal winners will understandably get most attention there were fantastic swims throughout the team with over 200 personal best times recorded and almost every final having a CASA swimmer in it. Every one of our swimmers can be very proud of their performances and the contribution they made to the overall team.

I am also delighted that the club is continuing to demonstrate that it is able to compete at the very highest levels and give talented swimmers the opportunity to make the most of their potential. What is really thrilling is that we are still improving and there is no limit to what the club and its’ swimmers can achieve.”

CASA medal winners were:

Leah Altoft: 13 years - 100m breaststroke (bronze)

Tobias Butler: 13 years - 800m freestyle (gold), 1500m freestyle (bronze)

Georgia Cragg: 11 years - 100m breaststroke (silver), 200m backstroke (bronze)

Joshua Jones: 11 years - 100m breaststroke (silver)

Maisie Legge: 11 years – 400m freestyle (silver), 200m backstroke (bronze)

Sophie Long: 12 years - 800m freestyle (bronze), 1500m freestyle (bronze)

Thomas Paine: 13 years – 400m freestyle (bronze),1500m freestyle (silver), 200m IM (bronze), 400m IM (silver)

Molly Unwin: 11 years – 200m butterfly (bronze)

Oliver Webster: 10 years – 100m, 200m & 400m freestyle (gold)

100m & 200m breaststroke (gold)

100m & 200m backstroke (gold)

100m butterfly (silver), 200m butterfly (gold)

200m IM & 400m IM (gold)

In addition to the medals won by swimmers in the top three, all swimmers are awarded points based on their times in each event and these are used as a measure to judge overall results. These are called British Age Group Category points or BAGCAT points for short. CASA had eight swimmers in the top ten in their respective age groups as follows:

10 year boys – Oliver Webster 1^st

10 year girls – Maisie Legger 6^th

11 year boys – Joshua Jones 6^th, Callum Gladding 7^th

11 year girls – Georgia Cragg 5^th

12 year girls – Sophie Long 8^th

13 year boys – Thomas Paine 4^th

13 year girls – Leah Altoft 5th