Berkhamsted swimmers celebrate a year to remember at presentation night

Berkhamsted Swimming Club elected new club captains earlier this month

Head Coach Geoff Wood outlined that during 2014 the club had logged nearly 7,000 times in the pool.

Record numbers had taken part in the Club Championships across the year, and a total of 225 swimmers had posted times in the last 12 months.

An impressive 40 swimmers took part at county level, and higher numbers than ever before competed at regional championships – with Mason Brand being the club’s first appearance at the National Championships.

The main prize winners on the night included: Swimmer of the year - Mark Strakosch; Club person of the year - coach Charles Dainton; Most improved junior swimmers of the year - Amy Pemberton and Ish Rahim; Most improved senior swimmers of the year - Abbie Hurst and Sam Newman; Club 50 Free winner - Adam Hawkswood; 1,500m champion - Jordan Northwood; 800m champion - Yazii Brand; Club BAGCATs winners: (9 & under) Tamsin Moren and Tom Holmes-Higgin, (10 & 11 years) Izzie Soulsby and Louis Armitage, (12 & 13 years) Charlotte Watson and Mason Brand, (14 & 15 years) Jess Potts and Jordan Northwood, (16 & over) Yazii Brand and Tom Strakosch.

The club also elected the following as captains and vice captains: Boys’ captain - Ollie Hurst; vice-captain - Sam Newman; girls’ captain - Abbie Brown; vice-captain - Jenny Atwill.

The final presentation of the night was a belated one. Back in December the club’s U14 teams competed at the Herts ASA Daplyn Trophy.

The girls’ first team claimed second spot and the boys’ first team of Mason Brand, Ish Rahim, Zach Patel, Harry Thorne and James Chennells were also given second.

It later transpired that an error had been made and it gave their coach great pleasure to present the trophy and gold medals to the Berko boys