Kicking off this year’s Nationals for Northgate SC were Ben and Joe Ritson who competed in the SE Open Water Championships at Rother Valley on 30th July 2018. They both swam really strongly over the 2km course with Joe finishing 19th and Ben in 27th place.

Well done from Northgate!!!

Tuesday 31st July at Ponds Forge – Andy Jones swam a PB in the 100 breaststroke heats to finish 6th and secure a place in the final. Andy swam 1:12.95 beating his previous best by 0.3 seconds. In the final Andy shaved a little more off his time clocking 1:12.92 and finishing in 7th place.

Wednesday 1st August at Ponds Forge – Elle Humphries swam today in the 200 Breaststroke where she just missed her PB in a great race. Elle started the race really well, beating her PB for 100 breaststroke at the half way mark, however the fast start took it’s toll in the last length. A great effort though giving her 14 place overall.
Andy also narrowly missed his PB in his 200 breaststroke heat by just 0.02 seconds. Later in the day he swam a more determined race in the final and took almost a second and a half off his PB to finish in a time of 2:38.52 in 9th place.

Friday 3rd August at Ponds Forge – Andy finished off his great week by competing in the 50 breaststroke. He had a great start to the race with the 3rd fastest reaction time off the blocks. It was really tough competition though as there was only 0.6 seconds separating all the swimmers in his age group on entry times. However, with a strong finish Andy managed again to lower his best time and finished in 13th place in 33.62 seconds.