Willis breaks meet record en route to Watford title

Dec 3 2009 By Yann Tear, Ealing Gazette

JODIE WILLIS achieved the fastest time ever recorded at the Watford Open Meet for the 400m medley as she stormed to victory inside the national qualifying time.

The 16-year-old's time of 4min 58.62sec was the highlight for Ealing Swimming Club at the middle distance meet, in which some 20 swimmers, mainly from the younger age groups, produced a grand total of 16 gold medals, five silvers, four bronzes and a further 10 top eight places.

Willis is now entitled to compete in next year's national championships in Sheffield.

Aaron Pullen also had an outstanding time at Watford, winning five events in his age group - the 200m medley, breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke, and 400m free.

Lucy Thornton won three events - the 200m freestyle, medley and butterfly - and came third in the backstroke, while Maisie Jameson won her backstroke and medley races and was second in the 200m and 400m freestyle. Ade Coker won both these events in his age band.

Hannah Cierebiej-Jeffery won the

200m backstroke and was second in the 400m freestyle. Naomi Sawaki took gold in the 200m medley. Alexandro Ionnides won the over-16s 200m breaststroke.

Ellie Love won silvers for the 200m medley and breaststroke and bronze for the 200m backstroke.

There were bronzes for Sofia Tedeschi Atkins (400m medley) and James Wilson (200m back-stroke). Top eight places were achieved by Isabelle Barnes, Sascha Compton, Pooja Gupta, Bethan Hall Jones, Bradley Hill, Isaac Lillington, Tasmin Norris, Joseph Sheehan and Joshua Wood.

Ealing's masters were even more prolific in Maidenhead at the Berks & South Bucks County Open Masters event, claiming a staggering 56 medals (16 golds, 18 silvers and 22 bronzes).

They finished second only to Maidenhead SC - by a mere 8.5 points - out of 45 competing teams.

Fifteen personal best performances were achieved from the Ealing squad who had 19 members competing, including former Commonwealth Games finalist Mark Jones.

The outstanding races were the two 4x50m freestyle and medley relays, which Ealing (Gerald Gillespie, Mark Jones, Jason Liong and Nick Cattle) won by threequarters of a length.

Individual medal winners were: Tony Pepper (three gold, bronze), Liong (two gold, two silver), Malcolm Munro (two gold), Martin Fox (gold, three silver, bronze), Tracey Kain (gold, two silver, bronze), Grace Marshall (gold, two bronze), Cattle (gold, silver), Alun Pinnegar (gold, two bronze), Gerald Gillespie (gold, bronze), Lizzy Tinley (two silver, two bronze), Jones (two silver), Helen Freeman (silver, two bronze), Morris Rollo (silver, bronze), Kathy Rose (silver), Anita Potter (three bronze) and David Mathison (three bronze).

Finally, Charlie Turner and Georgina Heyn competed in Eindhoven, Holland, last weekend, as part of a training camp with the England Talent Performance Programme. Ealing head coach Dave Heathcock was part of the coaching team.

Turner and Heathcock have both been named in the British team for the European Short Course Championships in Istanbul, next week (December 11-13), when Ekaterina Avravomova will be competing for Bulgaria.

In the new year Turner, Avravomova, Heyn, Chris Jones and Lauren Turner will be part of a London Region team competing in the Geneva open meet. Ealing deputy head coach Allan Thornton is part of the coaching team.