Thanet Swim Club

Ben Pond has been offered a place on the Pentathlon GB England Talent Pool (ETP) programme. This is the first formal stage of the talent development pathway for athletes in the sport of Modern Pentathlon, which has the ultimate aim of developing athletes to progress through to the World Class Pathway.

Ben has been selected because of his performances in running and swimming in biathlon competitions, complemented by performances in one or more of the other 3 disciplines in the sport and Pentathlon GB believe he has the strong potential to go further in Modern Pentathlon.

Well done Ben

Katie Latham has been nominated for the young sports star of the year award at Kent Regional News and Media’s Sports Award 2012.

The Dover Express have recognised Katie’s incredible year which has seen her perform at the London 2012 Olympic Aquatic Centre and they have put her forward for the award.

Sports Write Jack Wilson said “Katie has done remarkably and it shows that if you put in the hard work in you get the rewards. She trains so hard at Thanet Swim Club. Competition will be strong for this award but Katie has as good a chance as anyone as her achievements have been so great”.

Katie, 15, from Walmer swims for Thanet under Head Coach David Whorlow and attends Sir Roger Manwoods School in Sandwich.

She shone at the UK School Games last month at the Olympic Aquatic Centree where she represented East England in 5 events. Katie helped East England to a bronze medal in the relay with a fine swim. Before that she claimed 2 gold medals at the south-east Regional Championships in the 50m Backstroke in a new Record and the 50m Freestyle.

Her twim sister Alice is also lightning quick swimmer who herseld has recorded times of national standard.

Dover Express, Thursday 7th June 2012

Oh what a night! The lead changing hands with Sevenoaks all night and then Beckenham making a late charge to claim 2nd place only 2 points behind Sevenoaks and 8 points ahead of us.

Head Coach, David Whorlow said “A really good team spirit and effort by all last night. Perhaps we can do enough to turn this around next time at Hartsdown in round 2? “

Full results can be found here

A record 31 Thanet swimmers qualified for this year’s ASA South East Region Swimming Championships with a squad of 20 attending the Age Group Championships and a further 11 swimmers contesting the Youth Championships both held in the 50m pool at K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley with the Youth Championship finishing at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford.

The South East Regions top swimmers compete at the Championships with swimmers coming from the Regions top Clubs such as Guildford,Portsmouth,Oxford, Southampton and Jersey.

The 1^st weekend of the Youth Championships saw Thanet on the podium in style with Katie Latham not only winning a hat trick of Gold’s but setting a new South East Regional record in the 50 backstroke in a time of 29.86. There was further podium finishes for Louise Gates, Alice Latham and Ben Pond.

In the Age Group Championships, Thanet continued their success claiming 3 more South East Regional records.  As well as 6 Gold medals 12 year old Jamie O’Connor swam record breaking times in the 200IM and 1500 Freestyle. He also was joined by team mates Alex Wilmshurst, Harry Bradford and Ben Evans to set a new record in the boys 10 – 14 year old 4×200 freestyle relay. Podium finishes also went to Ben Evans 2 Gold 3 silver, Alex Wilmshurst 1 Silver, 3 Bronze, Maise Macartney 1 Gold, 2 Bronze, Hannah Denny Silver, and Harry Bradford Silver.

Thanet Swim CLub – South East Region Age Group and Youth Championship Squads

Thanet swimmers Kyri Papa- Adams and Katie Latham missed the last day of the Youth Championships to represent England East at the Sainsburys 2012 School Games which took place at the Olympic Stadium. Katie came home with 2 bronze medals in the relays, just missing out on a medal in the 100 backstroke finishing in 4th a new personal best time. Kyri also finished 4^th in his 100 breaststroke and 4^th again in the relay.