The Marlins March On!

Louise Richardson

Sussex ASA County Championships MSM medals table by swimmer: Spring Counties Medal Table by Swimmer

The Marlins March On

The March of the Marlins continues. We have just finished the 2017 Spring Counties and what a Counties it was. Let’s start with some highlights:

  • We had the highest club medal total – 139 medals with 38 county champions
  • We had the highest combined points total from the open championship and age group competition – Top Sussex club
  • We were the Women’s open championship winners
  • We were the County relay gala winners
  • 2 County records were broken:
    • Sophie Shaw u/16 100m backstroke 1.06.96
    • Georgina Gratton open 50m back 30.89
  • 9 Open club records were broken:
    • Sophie Shaw 100m backstroke -1.06.96
    • Sophie Shaw 200m backstroke -2.25.64
    • Georgina Gratton  50m back -30.89
    • Charlotte Johnson 200m Fly – 2.32.95
    • Charlotte Johnson 200m IM – 2.32.40
    • Charlotte Johnson 400m Free – 4.39.18
    • Charlotte Johnson 800m Free – 8.30.06
    • Ollie Goodhew 50m back – 28.14
    • Ollie Goodhew 100m back – 59.26
  • 12 Marlins came in the top 8 for their age group
    • Bethany King – 2nd (10 year old girls)
    • Oliver Hoey – 5th (10 year old boys)
    • Ethan Lightbound -7th (10 year old boys)
    • Hugo Aplin – 8th (11 year old boys)
    • Bethany Abrams – 1st and so overall county champion (12 year old girls)
    • Isabel Valovin – 4th (12 year old girls)
    • Teilo Williams – 4th (12 year old boys)
    • Millie Forcier – 7th (13 year old girls)
    • Sam Wiles – 2nd (13 year old boys)
    • Arthur Logan – 4th (13 year old boys)
    • Charlotte Johnson – 2nd (14 year old girls)
    • Tom Midmer – 2nd (14 year old boys)

Also well done to Bethany King, Charlotte Johnson, Sophie Shaw, Sophie Maguire, Kate Wood, Maddi Barnaby, Georgina Gratton, Rachael Bowen, Oliver Hoey, Ethan Lightbound, Hugo Aplin, Ben Chalmers, Michael Edwards, Arthur Logan, Ollie Richardson, Sam Wiles, Alex Curry, Ollie Mayhew, Robin Boyden, Joe Anderson and Ollie Goodhew who between them broke an amazing 62 Club Long Course  Records. Brilliant swimming!

In total we had 62 swimmers compete and each and every one swam fantastically and did the Marlins Proud. Well done Team Marlins.

The effort our swimmers put into their sport always amazes me. The early mornings, the late nights, and always with a positive attitude.

Aside from our brilliant swimmers there is so much hard work which goes into putting together a competitive racing squad of the size and quality of the Marlins.

Our coaches do an amazing job so we should start by recognising the brilliant work done by Steve Murphy, Nic Piper, Dave Wood, Mike Green, Louise Gale, Miles Denyer and Simon King. Thank you.

We should also recognise where a lot of our competitive swimmers come from, and that is the excellent teaching set up the Marlins has, led by Stuart Ward. To each and every one of our Teachers thank you.

We would also like to acknowledge all of the Marlins Officials, AOE Team and our Parent Volunteers who freely gave up their time to help run this year’s Spring County Championships. Dawn Midmer, Justine Benstead, Martin Parvin, Sharon Hawkey (who passed her J1, well done), Sarah Valovin, Louise Gale, Gina Hobson (who passed her J2, well done), Angela Curry, Paul Johnson, Bev Shaw, Neil McCallum, Sarah Johnson, Louise Richardson,  John Maguire, Sarah Maguire, Dianne Chalmers, Jenny Robinson, Sarah Cummins, Nicky Forcier, Elaine Wood, Darren Boyden, Graeme Edwards, Michel Nehme, John Gale THANK YOU. Without your amazing support the counties just couldn’t happen.

Now there is someone we feel we should highlight and that is Angela Curry. We all owe a huge thank you to Angela Curry, who does so much for the Marlins, most of which you will never see. Angela, thank you so much for all your hard work and service to the Marlins.

It’s also important we recognise that a club of the Marlins size needs a lot of support and behind the scenes organization so we would like to thank the board for their continued support of our competitive set up and also Kerry for her amazing work as our Club Manager.

Coming out of this year counties our lead coaches Steve Murphy and Nic Piper have the following message for all of our swimmers.

“This is the highest scoring county championships the club has ever had. We are extremely proud of our achievement and progression this year. We would like to congratulate the coaches, swimmers, volunteers and club on a fantastic team effort and club performance. Hard work pays off and we will continue to strive for improvement and excellence this season and beyond”.

Great words of encouragement.

We will shortly start turning our attention to the up and coming Regional Championships and also to defending our Sussex League crown.

For now #GoMarlins

We are so proud of you

Dan

Team Manager of the Mid Sussex Marlins

  • Sussex Champions 2016
  • Highest club medal total – Counties 2017
  • Highest combined points total – Counties 2017
  • Women’s open championship winners – Counties 2017
  • County Relay gala winners – 2017