SOUTH Croydon Swimming Club have had a busy month, ending with them finishing runners-up in the National Arena League South East Division Two, confirmed on Saturday, thereby gaining promotion to Division One at their first attempt.
South Croydon were only beaten by Sutton & Cheam SC and actually won the first two galas, at Gillingham and Hastings, which guaranteed their qualification for the third and final gala, along with the top six teams in the league, at Dover, on Saturday night.
South Croydon and Sutton & Cheam were clear leaders with Ashford Town some way behind in third place.
Many personal-best times were recorded and, pleasingly for swimmers and coaches, no disqualifications were reported.
A team of South Croydon swimmers recently attended the London Regional Winter Championships, at the London Aquatic Centre.
Dylan and Kane Nurse recorded several huge PBs, particularly in the 1500m freestyle with Dylan also achieving a consideration time in the 200m breaststroke for the South Zonal Meet at the end of January.
Ella Corby also added a couple of PBs in her favoured long-distance freestyle events, while achieving her eighth consideration South Zonal time while breaking the Croydon Borough 400m freestyle record, subject to ratification.
Great PBs at this Level One London regional event were also achieved by Kate Purser (50m freestyle), Amy Davies (100m and 200m breaststroke) and Aaron Vencatachelum (50m freestyle).
In the South Croydon Swimming Club's championships, three weekends of back-to-back events took place at Whitgift School. The club's swimmers gained many PBs and 18 club records were broken.
In the nine-ten age-level events, Molly Bradley won her first trophy for the 50m backstroke and Christopher Finch, who has shown marked improvement, produced a PB in the breaststroke.
Records were broken by Kane Nurse (200m individual medley, Dylan Nurse (200m breaststroke), Amy Davies (11-12 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke open, 100m backstroke), Emma Davies (U10, 50m freestyle and 100 IM), Ella Corby (800m freestyle open, 200m freestyle open, 200m IM open, 13-14 backstroke, 100m backstroke open, 100m freestyle open, 50m freestyle), Laura Chisholm (50m butterfly), Callum Black (13-14 100m breaststroke ) and Kate Purser (50m butterfly open).
The club can now look forward to a break from competition until the middle of January.
