Satellites shine at Ponds Forge event
A MIXED group of experienced and younger swimmers from the Satellites Club went to compete in Rotherham Metros A/B grade meet in Ponds Forge on Saturday.
Ruby Burns, Georgia Bell and Holly Needham all continued to show great form winning medals and gaining PBs, and the likes of Jess Birchenough, Beth Hodgkinson and Kara Mather all showed that their hard work in training has been paying off with PBs and medals aplenty.
Fionn Carman, Nat Costigan and Greg Stewart all had amazing days, smashing PBs by huge margins and showing their strength and power in each race they swam.
This was brilliant to see and encouraging for both themselves and the coaches.
Moving onto the younger end, a group of swimmers are really starting to show their steel and grit and are impressing every time: Erin More O’Ferrel, Mia Van Dam, Mary Odell, Rosie Jones and Elliot Naylor all are doing well.
Coach Karl Needham said: “A few special mentions must go to Amelia Whittington who swam nine races in short a space of time and smashed nine PBs.
“Personally I was really pleased and proud to see this off her and gives her a much needed boost in her swimming performances.
“Another special mention goes to Ana Goldrick who fell out of love with swimming 12 months ago, but with a little bit of TLC and some tough training recently she managed to swim miles faster than 12 months ago and was fractions away from her life time bests, a feat that she thought was impossible at the start of 2016.
“One more mention – Reece Grady won the overall top boy trophy and swam some very impressive times, notably the 100 and 200 FC, more impressive was the way he swam with almost faultless technique.”
Satellites as a team took third in the overall top visiting club.
Not to be outdone, the club’s para-swimmers were also in action at the weekend.
Samm Lewis, Ellie Bamber, Ella O’Donnel all swam in the NE ParaSwimming Regionals in Harrogate where Samm managed to swim personal bests in the majority of events.
Ella took huge chunks off her PBs which was reward for her hard work in training while Ellie carried on her impressive form showed at ASA Nationals in the summer.