RTW Monson rounds off the season with success at the Swim England National Summer Meet

Last week RTW Monson reported on the swimmers who attended the British Summer National Meet, the following week, seventeen swimmers from RTW Monson rounded off a tough season with some stunning performances at the Swim England National Summer Meet, which took place in at the same venue, Ponds Forge in Sheffield. 

13-year-old Julia Elvidge took centre stage, earning herself the gold medal for 100m backstroke by lowering her personal best to 1.07.19 after a nail-biting last 25m to touch the wall first. She went on to take home the silver medal in the 200m Individual Medley, before adding a bronze to her growing collection in the 100m freestyle event, where she sliced over four seconds off her best time. Two other medallists came in the form of Aubry Armada Bennett, 16, who collected a well-deserved bronze medal in the 400m Individual Medley, lowering his personal best by over 15 seconds in a massive swim, and 17-year-old Hannah Murphy, who found herself behind at the 150m mark of the 200m backstroke final. Storming down the last length, Hannah touched the wall two seconds clear of her nearest rivals to claim the gold medal in a new personal best time of 2:20.99, a drop of four seconds. Adding to the RTW medal count, Denys Mialkovskyi, 17, who claimed silver in the 100m freestyle, in a new personal best time of 53.02.

15-year-old Maddie Hind had a great week, racing in multiple finals, finishing seventh, fifth and sixth in the 100m, 200m & 400m freestyle, with a strong fourth place finish on the last day of the meet in the demanding 400m IM. A few days earlier, Maddie had swum in the 200m IM final and, after taking a commanding lead at the 100m mark, battled through to take the gold medal in a new personal best time of 2:27.19.

Aubry also raced in the 200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke and finishing 11th, 12th, before coming in eighth in the 200 IM final. Six first-time qualifiers at this level were Alex Tollit, 17, who finished 21st, 22nd and 20th in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke and 27th in the 400m IM, and his sister Zoe Tollit, 14, who swam well in her 100m and 200m breaststroke races, finishing 30th and 16th. Teammate, 14-year-old Bella Jones performed well in the 400m freestyle to finish 34th, and Alex Mialkovskyi, 13, achieved two new personal bests in the 400m & 800m freestyle to finish 23rd and 13th. On his English Summer Meet debut, Rohan Bissett, 14, swam a brave first part of the race in the 200m backstroke to finish 30th and was joined his brother Aran, 16, in the same event.

14-year-old Lowri Williams swam in three races across the week; 100m breaststroke, 200m and 400m IM, to finish 16th, 35th and 34th respectively. Evie Stockdale produced a strong swim in the 100m backstroke to finish 16th in the 18 and over age group. Chloe Edwards, 16, made her first two finals at this level, to secure new personal bests in the 100m and 200m backstroke events, finishing fifth and sixth in two very closely fought finals. Reese Huckle, 15, also made the 200m backstroke final, finishing eighth, and competed in the gruelling 800m and 1500m freestyle races to finish in 19th and 24th position.

Multi-finalist, Lilia Fornasier, 16, made top ten finishes in the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle to finish sixth, fifth, sixth and seventh. She also came fourth in the 200m backstroke and eighth in 400m IM. Lilly Deller, 15, also had multiple top ten finishes, coming in eighth in the 200m IM and, after a battle from the start, claimed fifth in the 400m freestyle and sixth in the 800m freestyle. Lilly also swam in the 50m and 100m freestyle to finish 25th and 15th respectively and in the 50m, 100m & 200m Butterfly to finish in 15th, 16th and 15th place. 

Head coach Adam Naylor said, “It's been a long two weeks of competition and our swimmers have conducted themselves admirably, showing lots of courage and character throughout these championships. A huge congratulations to all of the athletes and a big thank you must also go to all of the coaches for their hard work throughout the season.”