Club success at County Blocks...
Another year of Gloucester Blocks has passed and signalled another step in the right direction for Bristol Henleaze Swimming Club.
The Club had the biggest entry of all competing clubs this year (a first for BHSC) and added a great medal haul to the plethora of first time qualifiers – with a host of personal best swims along the way.
The Blocks – that run over 4 full weekends throughout January and February, and also include the Team Relay Championships – showcase the best talent in the Gloucestershire County with athletes competing from age 10 (9 in the relays) all the way up to senior competitors in their 40s and 50s and beyond. It is a veritable feast of racing spanning 20+ different events as well as relay races across 6 different age brackets!
Throughout all of the individual events Bristol Heneaze came away with a staggering 23 Gold medals; 13 Silvers and 21 Bronze; and added to their total in the Team events with a further 9 Gold; 6 Silver and 3 Bronze.
The entire cohort of County swimmers excelled for their Club this year, just as they do every time that they represent BHSC. There were however, some incredible individual performances and record breaking swims that added a special touch the whole Club’s success:
Sean Simmons (15) was outstanding across all of his events, securing no less than 9 Gold Medals (50m Fly, Free and Back; 100m Fly, Back and I.M; 200m Back and both the Free and Medley 15/16 years Relays) as well as being crowned Junior Champion for all of the individual Golds – a mighty feat for an exciting young swimmer, just beginning to make his mark on a National scale.
There was a nice haul of 5 Gold medals for 14 year old Jonny Butt (50m Fly, Free; 100m Fly, Free, I.M) who has shown what can be achieved when you set your mind to a task, making massive strides forward in the past 12 months – we are all keen to see where Jonny can progress to in the future…
2 x Senior County Records were broken in the process to boot in the ultra-sprint events, with Rebecca Guy(50m Free) and Callum Greenwood (50m Back) taking honours and securing their names currently as the fastest ever from the County to date; Alysia Maestri also secured a Gold in the senior 50m backstroke, not quite breaking the record (but it is her own already having broken it in 2019!!) and Mimi Lloyd Sims taking Gold’s in both the 50m Free and 50m Fly (also grabbing Senior Champion in the latter).
Other Gold medal performances came from Amelie Bodmer (12 – 50m Fly) and Tom Cheetham Marchionne (16 – 200m Back); both of whom gained further Gold’s in their respective relay events, just to add a bit more bling to their horde!
A final mention for one of our youngest competitors, Lily Shippey (11) who walked away with a clean sweepin all 3 Breaststroke events (50, 100 and 200m) showcasing a domination that bodes extremely well for her future; we are excited to see it unfold!