The College Swimming team recently headed to the London Aquatics Centre at Olympic Park for the English Schools National Relay Finals.  Going into the competition, the women’s team had qualified 7th fastest in the country for freestyle and 13th fastest for the medley relay.  The men’s team had qualified 6th for their freestyle and 13th for their medley relay.  

The heats for women's freestyle and men's medley were first, with the top ten teams making the final. The women were in the final heat and finished 3rd and, although a fantastic time, it was not quite quick enough, leaving them in 12th place overall. 

The men had their work cut out for them in the medley heats needing to improve on qualification to ensure a place in the final.  Dan Heddon led off in the backstroke leg. Richard Sugden followed with the breaststroke, a phenomenal swim, finishing his leg in 3rd place.  Balazs Toth followed on the fly and Tom Smith brought the team home with the freestyle.  The team finished 4th in their heat and 9th fastest overall, qualifying for the final. They finished the final in 8th place overall, ahead of local rivals Barton Peveril College.

After a long wait, the women’s medley relay team were determined to make the final. They were led off by Ffion Thomas on the backstroke, Lucy Moores followed on the breaststroke, Florence Marks on the fly and Lucy Sturton on the freestyle.  They finished 2nd in their heat and placed 5th overall.  The team improved on their performance in the final and took 4th place behind Millfield School, Mount Kelly School and Plymouth College.

Going into the men’s freestyle final the team had been placed 5th. The boys delivered a fantastic swim and it was an incredibly close final. Unfortunately the battle for 4th to 8th place had all teams finish within half a second of each other and Farnborough touched in at 8th place.

A fantastic day at the swimming pool with quality performances all round - well done to all the students involved!