The National Swimming League London
The National Swimming League London Final took place on Saturday 13th December in the outer London Borough of Norwich. Four teams from the ASA London Region made the trek through the wind, rain and sleet to swim in final in the 50m UEA pool in Norwich.
A very close fought battle, especially between the top four clubs, saw Ipswich emerge as Champions with 318 points, Hatfield 2nd with 300, Camden Swiss Cottage - the top London Team - 3rd on 289 and Ealing 4th with 250. Romford (214) Wandsworth (157) filled the next 2 places.
Camden had to wait for event 6 The Boys 13 & Under medley team to see their first win of seven that they had in the evening. Impressive Robin Neumann won the girls 11 and under 50m backstroke 35.50 a swimmer we will be seeing a lot more of in the future. Camden also demonstrated their current strength on butterfly with 3 out of their 5 individual wins coming on the 100m event with Reut Benaim the 100m butterfly 1.09.21, Bogac Ayhan 59.98 both in the 15 and under age group and stepping up in the open Devon Robbins 1.05.09. One of the most impressive wins of the evening came from Felix Samuels looking majestic and gaining a comfortable win on the 15 and under 100m freestyle in 53.67.
Ealing’s open women were particularly strong taking the 200IM, 100 Back, 100 Free & 100 Breast and both relays , the 100fly saw Ealing take 2nd place – the Ealing open women had four international swimmers in action for them whilst the Ealing Open men were missing Charlie Turner unable to swim due to injury, they still put up some creditable performances with many top 3 finishes.
Camden’s coach Dave Hobbs was pleased with the results especially battling for 2nd place finishing just 12 points behind Hatfield and a few swimmers down to the bout of flu that seems to have affected most teams
Camden & Ealing must now await the result of the “virtual” gala to decide if the teams will make it through to the National Finals in Sheffield in April.
The Divison 2 final took place at Southbury Road. It was won by UEA City of Norwich, with 319, then came four London Teams, Greenwich Borough Mariners 2nd on 314, Edmonton Phoenix 3rd on 230, Bexley 4th on 207 followed by Seven Islands on 193. The first four are now promoted to Division 1.
