Kingfishers Rising in Strong Start to Swim Season

The first two months of the new swimming year have brought numerous successes for the young athletes of Kingsbridge Kingfishers.

Following golden success for Luna Browne, Emily Baxter, Hana Wood and Romy Stephenson at the Exeter Sprint Meet, a team of 48 swimmers travelled to Plymouth Life Centre for the annual City of Plymouth Championships.

There was a full programme of events at this competition, ranging from the 50m sprints to the 1500m Freestyle. It also contained five relay events, in which KKSC had not won any medals this decade.

However the growth and improvement in KKSC was evident when they won medals in every single relay event, with silvers in the 13&U medley relay, 14&O medley relay and the 6x50 Cannon Relay (pictured), and bronzes in the 13&U and 14&O freestyle relays.

Amongst the other achievements at the City Championships were George Stone’s first ever regional qualifying time in the 50m Butterfly, Romy Stephenson’s club record in the 200m Breaststroke, and Jack Sagar winning the City Final of the 100m Breaststroke. 

KKSC also grew their numbers of county qualifiers, with a brilliant swim by Chloe Tapper in the challenging 200m Butterfly giving her a first ever county time. 

Also succeeding in swimming’s hardest events were Eliza Musgrave - who gained her first ever qualifying times in the 800m and 1500m Freestyle - and Fabiano Noto who gained his first qualifying time of the season in the 400 IM.

During the City Championships, a new team event was launched known as COPSL (City of Plymouth Swimming League). KKSC finished 3rd out of 5 competing teams, behind 9 times national champions Plymouth Leander and Devonport Royal. They provided brilliant but tough competition for our improving swimmers across 43 events, with Kingfishers winning 4 of them. 

Freddie Stathers won his 50m Backstroke race to score KKSC maximum points. Also winning was Will Robinson in the 50m Breaststroke, Edna Gallego-Cooper in the 100m Butterfly and Frida Gallego-Cooper in the 100m Freestyle.

The final event of KKSCs early season outings was the Lyndsey Powell Open Meet, hosted by Exeter City Swimming Club. This is a higher level competition with some of the best swimmers in the South West taking part.

George Stone, Lucas Quiggin and Hana Wood achieved regional qualifying times. Chloe Morris - now training at Millfield School in Somerset - came back to swim with KKSC for the day and also secured four gold medals and four regional times from four outstanding swims. 

Also winning gold medals were Diego Clark and Emilia McKinlay, while Isabel Wood won 2 silvers and 2 bronzes to become KKSCs swimmer of the meet.

November sees Kingsbridge’s swimmers focus on competition at home, with the Heat-Tec KKSC Club Championships taking place at Quayside Leisure Centre from Tuesday November 11th to Saturday 22nd November. Entrance for spectators is free and the racing will be fast, with supporters of our swimmers welcome to watch at any time to see just how brilliant KKSC has become.