Katie Latham, Alice Latham, Kyri Papa-Adams, Kelly Henson and Louise Gates travelled to Sheffield for the British Youth Championships. Katie who is 15 years old qualified for 6 events at the championship in a 15/16 age group was in itself a fantastic achievement. Katie went on to reach the semi-final in 2 events and the final in the 50 free where she finished in a fantastic 5th place in a new club record time of 26.77. She set a further 2 personal bests and 2 club records. Alice and Kyri also both only 15 years old qualified for 2 events. Kyri achieved a personal best in the 200IM and a club record in a time of 2.15.09 also reaching the semi-finals of the event.
Louise who is now at Swansea University and during term time trains with the Swansea Performance Squad qualified for 3 events; the 400m and 800m Freestyle and the 100m Breaststroke and finished in the top 10 in all 3 races.
Next off to Sheffield for the British National Age Group championship was Harry Bradford, Ben Evans, Alex Wilmshurst and Jamie O’Connor.
Between the 4 boys they qualified for a staggering 29 events and 3 relay events. However, they had to restrict their programme to just 19 individual events and 2 relays to avoid over swimming. In the end the results were quite remarkable.
Seeded 3rd going into the heats of the 4x 200m Freestyle Relay the 4 boys posted a new South East Regional Record beating the previous mark by 4 seconds in 8 minutes 19 seconds. However, this was only good enough for 5th seed going into the final and were definitely underdogs for a medal. But personal bests on each of the relay legs by every boy saw them take another 7 seconds off the Regional Record to secure them GOLD just ahead of City of Sheffield and City of Derby. This is the first time Thanet Swim Club has ever won a relay medal let alone a Gold medal beating a host of big City Clubs. National Relay Champions!
Jamie O’Connor followed this up by retaining his title in the 1500m Freestyle with an individual Gold and then a Silver in the 400 Freestyle again both Regional Records. Harry Bradford just missed out on a medal with 4th place in the 1500m Freestyle but with a massive personal best. Harry also qualified for the final of the 400m Freestyle and finished 6th
Ben Evans had a gruelling programme because as a 14 years old had to swim heats, semi-finals and finals. It is great testament of his fitness that he qualified for 2 finals with a Club Record in the 200 Fly final.
Based on all the events that the boys competed in, Alex Wilmshurst finished overall 9th in the country with Jamie finishing 14th and Harry 25th in the 13-year-old age group and Ben finishing in 15th in his age group
Thanet Swim Club 
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