Our squad
Bishop Stortford
Kirsty Neill
Alice Longman
Emma Fields
Meisha Trend-Evans
Lauren Gore
Watford
Max Walters
Victoria Daley
Potters Bar
Kabir Patel
Harpenden
Toby Martin
Hatfield
Lucas Hartley
Ever Ives
Verity Fuge
Erin Currie
Megan Gray
Charlotte Williams (captain)
Honor Beverstock
Oliver Baskerville
Alexandra Nurney
Hoddesdon
Maxwell Hosier
Zac Stacey
CoStA
Louis Robson
Hannah Brooke
Nathanial Mapley
Kieran Birkett (captain)
Judah Subba
Daniel Holliss
Stevenage
Sophie Stelmach
Bushey
Daniel Ord
The report
Sunday saw an early start, meeting at Herts Sports Village at 6.15am, with the coach on its way to Sheffield at 6.30am. The team was ably supported by Kat Gore & Kate Liddiard as Team Managers and Chris Hollis travelling as our Official. A quiet coach saw many getting some extra beauty sleep with us arriving at 9.15am. Once accreditations were given out we found our way to our allotted space and got ready for warm up.
The Parade of Teams followed the warm up. The event was open to all the English Counties plus teams from Scotland and Wales. The parade was a colourful affair with a variety of face and body paints being used along with wigs and hats. Kieran & Charlotte (captains for the day) paraded the County banner, enjoying the cheers from the rest of the team.
Racing finally got underway at 1.15pm. As this was the first time the competition had been held since 2019 there were many swimmers from all teams who had not experienced this type of competition and atmosphere before, this lifted swimmers and helped produce some great swims across the Counties.
There were great performances from our County team with many swimmers setting PBs and excellent relay splits which was fantastic to see so early in the season. Hertfordshire were in Division 2 with the races starting from the diving pool end and Division 1 were racing simultaneously from the scoreboard end. By the end of the competition we had secured 11th place a great result.
Coaches Paul Wollaston & Claire Matthews had the unenviable task of selecting the top male/female swimmer form the County. After much deliberation Alexandra Nureny & Oliver Baskerville narrowly came out on top for their swims over the day.
Hopefully those who experienced the competition will continue to train hard so that they can be in contention next year for a place in the team. For others reading this, work hard so you too can be in contention for selection next year.
