Norwich Easter Meet 2012 - Report
Date:
12/04/2012
The Easter weekend saw 33 Hamilton Aquatics swimmers travel to Norwich, England to compete in the Norfolk club’s annual Easter Meet. This is the 5th year that Hamilton have attended the meet that saw teams from all over the UK bring a total of 625 swimmers to the competition. Once again the team showed their strength against some of the best teams in the region by bringing home the Top Visiting Club trophy for the 3rd year in a row.
On top of this, youngsters Huw Hillson and Tara Desai came away with the overall top male and female awards for accumulating the most amount of points in the whole competition. Velimir Stjepanovic was also 3rd in the overall male rankings. Unfortunately this year they did not give age group trophies as I am sure they would have been many other worthy winners.
The three day competition proved highly successful for many of our swimmers, who accumulated a mass of medals and huge PB’s. There were also British National Qualifying times for Cameron Matthews (200 Breastroke), Jakub Karl (200 Backstroke and 400 IM) , Lewis Burras (200 Freestyle), Anouque Berghuis (200 Backstroke and 800 Freestyle) and Hannah Taleb (100m Breastroke) making a total of 16 swimmers now able to compete at the Age Group and Youth Championships in July. Simon Chivers and Alex Millington also came very close to their first NQTs of the year, just a few hundredths away in some events.
Many of our swimmers came away with a 100 percent PB rate for the gala and nearly every swimmer came away with at least one PB. The team performed brilliantly and were a credit to themselves and Hamilton not just for fantastic performances but for excellent behaviour and manners throughout the meet. Staff at the airport, leisure centre and hotel commented on how polite and well behaved the team were which is fantastic to hear.
The team arrived in Norwich on a rainy Wednesday morning, making for a welcome return for many to the British weather. Fortunately the team must have brought the Dubai sun as the weather cleared in the next 3 days to give blue skies and cool temperatures which meant that before the meet the team were able to enjoy team activities including an entertaining Egg Rolling competition. They also enjoyed a trip into Norwich where they watched ‘Streetdance 2’.
A special thanks must also go to team captains Chris Allan and Maisy Duncan who led with great maturity and leadership throughout the course of the trip and of course to any parents who helped out.
Full Team: Alexander Millington, Alistair Christopher Allan, Anouque Berghuis, Audrey Keliehor, Emma Howard, Halle Ashworth, Harry Dalgarno, Hazem Zahab, Jakub Karl, Julian Ulanowski, Katerina Kovalenko, Laura Ulanowska, Lewis Burras, Maria Iorini, Mollie Smithfield, Osama Kandil, Poyan Daniel Momeni, Samuel Hancock, Sarah Duncan, Thomas Dalgarno, Trinity Zdunich, Velimir Stjepanovic, Andrew Montgomery, Joseph Page, Ben Taleb, Francesca Falzon Young, Hannah Taleb, Huw Hlilson, Matthias Falzon Young, Simon Chivers, Tara Desai, Cameron Matthews, Mark Matthews