Wardle leads the way (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Wardle leads the way

LAST Saturday saw swimmers from SITEL sponsored Stratford Sharks travel to the 50m Olympic Pool in Coventry for the third and final weekend of the Warwickshire Cham-pionships.

Another series of outstanding performances from young and old alike saw the squad secure ten places in competition finals and three overall championship medals to add to eight further successes in age group events.

Stratford's top performer was undoubtedly 19-year old James Wardle who returned home from Loughborough University to record resounding victories in both the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly events.

Emma White (14) then built on these successes, following up a second place in her age group heat with a silver medal in the final of the 100m breaststroke.

Lawrie Mills was the club's most prolific medal winner returning home with a gold, silver and two bronzes from a busy day of competition.

Clocking

Competing in the 13/14-year age group, he won gold in the 400m freestyle when clocking the fifth fastest time of the day.

This was then followed with individual bronze medals in the 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley and a silver from the Under-16 freestyle relay when he tea-med up with David Town-send, Robert Jolly and Tom Pilling.

Townsend also added to his relay success with silver medals in the 13/14 age group of both the 50m backstroke and butterfly.

Not to be outdone, Jolly, competing in the highly competitive 15 and over category, reached the same two finals finishing in an impressive sixth position on both occasions.

Claire Bassinder was next to show fine sprinting form, taking an excellent silver medal in the 14 and over heats of the 50m freestyle.

The 100m breaststroke proved a successful event for the Stratford team with Fran Cassidy-Morris taking second place in the 13-year age group.

Other results - 200m breaststroke: 5 Aaron Brough (pb). 200m IM: 5 A Brough (pb). 50m backstroke: 5 Ben Lane (pb). 200m breaststroke: 12 Josh Walker (pb). 50m butterfly: 6 Megan Stanley (pb). 50m freestyle: 9 Francis Goss (pb).

In the older age groups, the backstroke provided greatest success with Emma Bysouth, Rebecca Tame, Katie Card-well and Imogen Cork all recording personal best times.

A superb day for the Strat-ford team continued with further personal best times from brothers Tom and Jack Pilling in the boys 100m freestyle.

Aaron Robinson and Tom Lane then matched this achievement before Robinson went on to record another best time in the 200m breaststroke.

The same stroke also saw a pb from Lizzie Boyes and Lily Russell-Wilks with fine swims in the shorter 100m event.

This concluded another successful championship for the Sharks and provided a fitting reward for the hours of hard training over the winter months.