Swimmers from St Bede’s School and St Bede’s Aquatics club got off to a dominant start at the opening events of the Sussex Swimming Championships.  On Sunday 13^th February at K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley the squad dominated the long distance events which mark the start of the annual county championships. 

In the Girls 800m event the squad managed to take three of the first five places with Jasmin Brennan narrowly beating teammate Katherine Horsfall-Turner in a very close finish to take both the Junior and Senior County titles.  Jade Pithers also swam a strong race to finish in fifth place.  The rest of the team all scored solid points and there is little doubt that St Bede’s will be leading the club points at this stage of the girls competition.

The boys competed over 1500m and once again St Bede’s demonstrated why they are the premier swimming squad in the county for distance swimming with three swimmers placed in the first four.  In another close race Andrew Horsfall-Turner matched Jasmin Brennan’s feat by taking both the Junior and Senior titles with Will Condron finishing third and Ben Jones forth.

Both Girls and Boys squads lead their respective competitions at this stage and go into the next round of the championships well placed to challenge for overall honours.  The full team from the long distance events and their times were as follows: Girls 800m Jasmin Brennan (9.46.22), Katherine Horsfall-Turner (9.47.23), Jade Pithers (9.55.05), Cristina Richards (10.09.79), Eve Carless (10.10.86), Charlotte Chapman (10.31.03), Emma Horsfall-Turner (11.03.68), Madison Drury (11.33.54) and Rose Stride (11.44.27).  Boys 1500m Andrew Horsfall-Turner (17.22.82), Will Condron (17.39.78), Ben Jones (17.53.11), Alex Fenwick (18.33.62) and Theo Hall (20.45.53)