The last session of the County Champs took place at GL1 over the weekend of 13/14 March and what a memorable weekend it turned out to be.

The individual events concluded on Saturday with another set of outstanding results for Gloucester swimmers. Highlights include another 2 County Age Group Best records. Alex Seymour (10) broke the Age Group record for the 200m backstroke in an epic race with team mate Matthew Munden (10). Alex touched first in a fantastic time of 2:46.64 with Matthew finishing a fraction behind in 2:46.99. Both boys smashed the previous record of 2:53.28 (set by J Darby of Hereford in 2005).

Sophie Brown (14) swam a brilliant 100m fly in a time of 1:03.49 breaking 3 county records in the process! She easily broke the 14 year old Age Group record of 1:08.32 (set by C Dando of Soundwell in 2003). She also broke the County Competition Best record of 1:04.93 set by our very own Junior Coach, Jane Seymour (nee Burford) in 1987. It feels quite fitting that a record that has stood for 23 years should be passed from an ex Gloucester City swimmer, and now a Gloucester Coach, to a very talented swimmer within the club. Finally, Sophie also set a new overall County record set by Sara Dykes of Bristol North (date unknown).

Also of note, Tracey Kidner (18) secured a second NQT in the 100m backstroke in an excellent time of 1:03.70.

The achievements of Gloucester City, in the individual events, over the 3 weekends of the County Championships can be summarised as follows:

• Gloucester accumulated an astonishing total of 241 Age group medals (106 Gold, 75 Silver and 60 Bronze), a significant improvement on last years medal haul of 186 medals.
• 10 new County Age Group Best records, 1 Competition Best, and 1 overall County record were set by Gloucester swimmers in individual events at this years Counties.
• Gloucester was represented in all 32 of the Championship Finals, placing in the top 3 in 27 finals and clinching gold in 13, a true measure of our success as a competitive swimming club.
• Gloucester city swimmers claimed a staggering 34 County Championship titles (13 Overall County Champions, 10 Senior County Champions and 11 Junior County Champions).

• Gloucester finished top of the medal table with more than double the amount of individual event gold medals and Chamionship final gold medals to second place Severnside Tritons.

On Sunday it was time for the team relay events. GCSC Club Captain Emily Piddington and Charlotte French had organised a Breast Cancer Awareness charity fund raising event. As part of the event, Emily and Charlotte persuaded the whole team to wear pink tu tu’s, shocking pink socks and to race in pink swim caps. They all looked very fetching – especially the boys! The pink look added to the fun filled atmosphere, with laughter resonating through the Barton pool complex and easing any potential race nerves.

The relays brought out the very best in team spirit from the Gloucester swimmers of all ages. Under the direction of our very experienced and brilliant coaching team, the Senior and Sprint squads pulled together to create one team with one vision.
In the 18 team relay events, Gloucester won an incredible 11 Golds, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals. An unbelievable 10 County relay records were broken by the Gloucester City relay teams on Sunday much to the delight of the coaching team and swimmers alike. The 13/14 year old girls broke both the 4 x 100m free and medley records previously set by GCSC in 2009.

The 15/16 year old girls followed suit and broke both the 400m free record, set by Thornbury in 2006 and the 400m medley record set by Bristol Henleaze in 2009. The 15/16 year old boys claimed the County record in the 4 x 100m free relay set by GCSC in 2007. The mixed 17/over relay team took both the 400m free record set by Soundwell in 2008 and then the 400m medley record by GCSC in 2009.

In the 4 Championship Finals (Men and Women’s Open 4 x 100m free and 4 x 100m medley), Gloucester completely dominated and won Gold in all 4 events by a significant margin. Gloucester now holds all 4 Championship County records.

The Women’s Open team smashed the County record by an impressive 10 seconds in the 4 x 100m Medley in a fantastic time of 4:22.32 (a record previously set by Bristol North in 1998). The men’s Open team also clinched a new record in the 4 x 100m free relay in a time of 3:32.30.

The last race of the Championships saw the Women’s Open 4 x 100m free relay team make County history by going under 4 minutes. In fact they smashed the previous record of 4:00.33 set by GCSC in 2005 in an astonishing time of 3:57.58! It was the perfect end to the County Championships 2010.

The future looks very bright for Gloucester City and we can look forward to becoming “Simply Better”.