Leeds Named Top Girls Team at National Age Groups

Golds from Kiani Camp­bell Grady and Katy Fish­er helped to see Leeds crowned the top age group girls team in the land.

Dai­ly Reports

Day 1 – Camp­bell Grady Takes Gold

The City of Leeds start­ed the 2011 Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships in fine fash­ion with five finals from sev­en swims and life­time best per­for­mances from Rebakah Bir­rell (200m indi­vid­ual med­ley), Eddis­son Munoz (100m back­stroke) and the Boys 400m freestyle Team of Blake Ben­nett, Math­ieu Ehret, Dou­glas Walk­er and Fred­dy Hoban.

First to take to the water in the finals ses­sion was Rebekah Bir­rell in the Girls 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley. Rebekah came 4^th in a close final with a life­time best per­for­mance, bet­ter­ing her time from the heats by 2 seconds.

Eddis­sion Munoz went next in the Boys 100m back­stroke, com­pet­ing at his first Nation­al Cham­pi­onships, fin­ish­ing in 10^th place in his first ever Nation­al final, just out­side his time from the heats.

Kiani Camp­bell Grady and Lin­da Shaw fol­lowed in the Girls 100m freestyle. Kiani pro­duced a life­time best per­for­mance to fin­ish first and win her first nation­al gold medal. Kiani took the lead ear­ly in the race and stayed ahead through­out. Lin­da also pro­duced a life­time best per­for­mance to fin­ish 6^th in her first ever nation­al final.

In the last final of the day for the City of Leeds Kiani took to the water again in the Girls 200m back­stroke final, fin­ish­ing third to win her sec­ond medal of the evening with anoth­er life­time best performance.

Day 2 – Shaw leads girls to glory

The sec­ond day of com­pe­ti­tion was a busy day for the City of Leeds with six­teen heat swims. The swim­mers fought hard to earn six finals places with life­time best per­for­mances from Kather­ine Fish­er (400m freestyle), Blake Ben­nett, Dou­glas walk­er and Fred­dy Hoban (200m but­ter­fly), Kather­ine Fish­er (100m but­ter­fly) and Blake Ben­net and Dou­glas Walk­er (200m indi­vid­ual medley).

After the morn­ing heat ses­sion the boys entered the pool for the 1500m freestyle with both Blake Ben­nett and Fred­dy Hoban pro­duc­ing life­time best per­for­mances. Blake fin­ished in 6^th place and Fred­dy 7^th against some tough com­pe­ti­tion. Dou­glas Walk­er also swam in the 1500m event falling just short of his best time.

In a busy finals ses­sion Kather­ine Fish­er took to the water first in the Girls 400m freestyle com­ing 10^th, just out­side her best. Next up was Fred­dy Hoban in the boys 200m but­ter­fly. Fred­dy fin­ished in 7^th after a tough race, just out­side his time from the heats. Next to swim was Chloe Adams in the girls 200m breast­stroke, appear­ing in her first nation­al final. Chloe deliv­ered a life­time best per­for­mance to fin­ish 7^th in a very close race.

Kather­ine Fish­er took to the water in her sec­ond final of the evening in the girls 100m but­ter­fly. Kather­ine fin­ished in 2^nd place to win a sil­ver medal, nar­row­ly miss­ing out on the gold in a thrilling fin­ish. Blake Ben­nett made his first final appear­ance of the Cham­pi­onships in the boys 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley fin­ish­ing 9^th just out­side his time from the heats.

In the last final of the ses­sion the City of Leeds 400m freestyle team of Lin­da Shaw, Kather­ine Fish­er, Rebekah Bir­rell and Kiani Camp­bell Grady fin­ished first to win gold with a sol­id per­for­mance. Lin­da led the team out before life­time best swims from Kather­ine and Rebekah set up Kiani to pow­er home in first place.

Day 3 – Fish­er Queen as Camp­bell Grady dou­bles up

Day three proved a tough day for the City of Leeds swim­mers with five finals from 14 swims with sev­er­al swim­mers miss­ing out on finals by the small­est mar­gins. There were life­time best per­for­mances from Dou­glas Walk­er and Fred­dy Hoban (400m freestyle), Kiani Camp­bell Grady (200m freestyle), Eddis­son Munoz (200m back­stroke) and Rebekah Bir­rell and Kather­ine Fish­er (200m butterfly).

Rebekah Bir­rell and Kather­ine Fish­er swam in the girls 800m freestyle and despite their best efforts fin­ished just out­side the top ten.

Kiani Camp­bell Grady was the City of Leeds first final­ist of the evening in the girls 200m freestyle. Fol­low­ing her gold in the 100m event much was expect­ed and Kiani duly deliv­ered lead­ing for near­ly the whole race to win her sec­ond nation­al title of the Cham­pi­onships. Eddis­son Munoz was next to swim in the boys 200m back­stroke final. After qual­i­fy­ing in a life­time best Eddis­son raised his game to steal a place and fin­ish 7^th, beat­ing his time from the morn­ing heats.

The City of Leeds had three swim­mers in the girls 200m but­ter­fly finals. First to swim was Abi­gail Bur­ton, anoth­er first time final­ist com­pet­ing at her first cham­pi­onships who fin­ished 10^th.

Next came Kather­ine Fish­er and Rebekah Bir­rell in the 200m but­ter­fly. After qual­i­fy­ing fastest the pres­sure was on Kather­ine and she did­n’t dis­ap­point. Despite being behind for most of the race Kather­ine pro­duced a scin­til­lat­ing fin­ish to touch out her oppo­nent and win her first nation­al title in a life­time best per­for­mance. Rebekah also pro­duced a fine swim to fin­ish in 6^th place.

Day 4 – Shaw leads the girls out again as Camp­bell-Grady gets three

The City of Leeds fought back on day four with five finals from ten swims. There were life­time best per­for­mances from Kiani Camp­bell Grady (100m back­stroke), James Thomp­son (100m breast­stroke) and Blake Ben­nett (100m butterfly).

The first final­ist for the City of Leeds was Kiani Camp­bell Grady who went into the final sec­ond in the girls 100m back­stroke. Kiani led from the start to win her third gold of the cham­pi­onships in a life­time best per­for­mance. Next up was James Thomp­son in the boys 100m breast­stroke who, after a life­time best in the heats fin­ished 10^th just out­side his time from the morning.

Next in the water was Chloe Adams in the girls 100m breast­stroke. Chloe swam a best time to fin­ish 7^th in anoth­er close race. Blake Ben­nett swam next in the boys 100m but­ter­fly final being just touched out to 9^th place despite a sec­ond life­time best of the day.

In last final day was the girls 800m freestyle team. Much was expect­ed of the City of Leeds team of Lin­da Shaw, Kather­ine Fish­er, Rebekah Bir­rell and Kiani Camp­bell Grady qual­i­fied first and they did­n’t fail to deliv­er. Lin­da led the girls out with a life­time best per­for­mance which set the tone for Kather­ine, Rebekah and Kiani to romp home to their sec­ond team gold of the Championships.

Day 5 – Munoz makes his mark

The final day of the 2011 Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships saw three City of Leeds swim­mers mak­ing the finals of the 400m indi­vid­ual med­leys from six starts and the girls 400m med­ley team going into the final in sec­ond place. The boy’s 400m med­ley team just missed out on the final. In the heats there were life­time best per­for­mances from Abi­gail Bur­ton, Rebekah Bir­rell, Eddis­son Munoz, Dou­glas Walk­er, Blake Ben­net and Fred­dy Hoban (400m indi­vid­ual medley).

Kather­ine Fish­er and Rebekah Bir­rell stepped up first in the final ses­sion to com­pete in the girls 400m indi­vid­ual med­ley final. With the points totals for top girls team close both girls need­ed to find a per­for­mance and they duly deliv­ered. Rebekah swam to a life­time best time and 6^th place and Kather­ine improved on her time from the heats to find an extra place and fin­ish in 9^th.

Next was the turn of the boys and Eddis­son Munoz took to the water first. Eddis­son put in an out­stand­ing per­for­mance to improve sig­nif­i­cant­ly on his life­time best set in the heats and fin­ish in 3^rd place to win his first nation­al medal. Dou­glas Walk­er went next and pro­duced a life­time best to fin­ish in 4^th place.

City of Leeds last swim of the Cham­pi­onships was the girls 400m med­ley team of Kiani Camp­bell-Grady, Chloe Adams, Katy Fish­er and Lin­da Shaw. With only 1 sec­ond cov­er­ing 2^nd to 4^th place the girls were touched out in the final stages of the race despite a strong last leg from Lin­da fin­ish­ing just out­side the medals in 4^th place.

Despite this dis­ap­point­ment the girls had plen­ty to cheer about as they were crowned the 2011 Nation­al Age Group Girls Teams Cham­pi­ons beat­ing City of Leices­ter by 7pts.

Well done to every­one involved.

Top Club Final Standings

Top Over­all Club

1. Stock­port Metro 203
2. Hat­field 178
3. Nova Cen­tu­ri­on 173
4. City of Leeds 158

Top Girls Team

1. City of Leeds 118
2. City of Leices­ter 111
3. Taunton Deane 104

Top Boys Team

1. Hat­field 178
2. Thanet 114
3. City of Leeds 40