Hastings swimmers swoop for county and regional medals

Hastings Seagull Swimming Club is celebrating its most successful regional event to date, with a series of national qualifying times and medals.

The two-day Swim England South East Open Winter Championships, which took place in Winchester, followed the County Championships at Crawley’s K2 in October, where Seagull swimmers also took home a raft of medals.

At the regional 25m short course event, which was open to swimmers of all ages, 25-year-old Callum Pearson, who is also the club’s head teacher, won gold in the 50m butterfly and silver in the 100m freestyle, while 15-year-old Evie Stockdale won junior bronze in the 200 metre backstroke.

In another remarkable accomplishment at the event, swimmers gained seven national qualifying times – the most gained by the club at a single meet.

Evie Stockdale and Louis Choron produced two each in the 100m/200m backstroke and 50m backstroke/100m individual medley, respectively.

Callum Pearson achieved one national qualifier in the 100m freestyle, as did Lauren Crawford in the 50m breaststroke and William Last in the 100m individual medley.

The five swimmers will now go on to compete at the Swim England National Winter Championships in early December.

Sacha Djerfi, Hastings Seagull head coach, said: “It is an outstanding achievement and shows the commitment and hard work that these swimmers have put into their training.

“The whole club has had a very successful year so far and these national times demonstrate that.”

The regional triumph for the club followed another strong medal haul at the 50m County Championships at the K2 in Crawley in October, where Seagull swimmers also proved their skills across a range of age groups.

They included: Eden Arnold (one bronze), Freya Bailey (one gold, two bronze), Reus Brown (one silver), Nate Cahill, 13, (five silver, two bronze), Louis Choron (one gold, two bronze), Thomas Coleman (one bronze), Peter Conte (one silver, one bronze), Lauren Crawford (one gold, three silver), Harry Daykin (one silver), Bella Gardner (one silver), Millie Hodgkin (one gold, one silver), Isla Isted (one bronze), William Last (one bronze), Alice Elliott (one gold), Imogen Magri (one bronze), Amber Mathews (one silver), Elisha Page (three silver, two bronze), Hettie Rankin (one silver), Madison Saunders (one bronze), Evie Stockdale (two gold, two silver), Daisey Uttley-Moore (one bronze), Joshua Wheeler (one bronze), Gabriel Williams (one bronze), Harley Williams (one gold, two silver, one bronze), Stanley Yeats (two gold, two bronze), as well as 11-year-old star of the weekend - Lucius Waite (four gold, five silver, one bronze).

Hastings Seagull chairman Olivier Choron praised the achievements of the swimmers this year.

“All our swimmers can be very proud of themselves,” he said.

“We now look forward to a great national championships and even more success in 2022.”