Also swimming in his own age group (14 yrs), Ben made a clean sweep in the Freestyle events adding the 200m, 100m and 50m events to his gold medal tally. Ben’s strongest events saw him win the 50m and 100m Backstroke. Ben claimed gold in both the 100m and 200m Individual Medley events and surprisingly also won the 50m Butterfly, making 11 Gold’s in his age group.

The only medals Ben had to concede were in the Breaststroke events when he had to settle for second place in the 100m behind team mate Sam Wright who won three golds in the 50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke.

In the 13 year age group once again Boston boys were very strong. Leading the way was Patrick Ikhena who specialises in the shorter distance events winning gold in the 50m, 100m and 200m Freestyle events, 50m and 100m Breaststroke, and the 50m Butterfly. Zak Lomas had a terrific Counties by swimming best times in every event and winning gold in the 200m Backstroke and 800m Freestyle events for his age group.

Reuben Reed swimming in the 10 year age group was slow to get into gear but made amends on the last two days, winning the 200m Backstroke and 200m Butterfly, beating team mate Oliver Street in both events. However, Oliver turned the tables on Reuben winning the 50m Butterfly.

Reuben also went on win the 200m and 400m Freestyle events and the 400m Individual Medley.

The only Girl Champion was Katy Tointon in the 9 years 200m Butterfly.

In the British Age Group Categories Award, which is the best overall performance in sprinting, distance event and favourite stroke and the individual medley, Boston swimmers came away with the following:

Reuben Reed was the winner of the 10 years age group with Oliver Street finishing third.

Patrick Ikhena won the 13 years age group with Zak Lomas finishing in third place.

Jessica Murfin was third in the girls 13 years age group.

Ben Pogson won the 14 years age group and Sam Wright finished in second place.

In the 9 years age group the following swimmers caught my eye. Jack Ross had a good championships and when he learns how to fly kick under water he could be another good backstroke swimmer. Jack finished 2nd in the 50m and 200m Backstroke. Connor Spinks swam well in the same event finishing 7th place in the 200m Backstoke. Thomas Tamberlin had a good swim in the 200m Breaststroke, finishing in 7th place.

Rebecca Craven, swimming in the 10 years age group, had a good championships and although she is not going to be a sprinter, showed that she can hold that speed through 200m and 400m. Rebecca caught my eye coming 4th in both the 200m and 400m Freestyle, 7th in the 200m Individual Medley and 3rd in the 200m Breaststroke.

I felt that Kimberley Van Haren had mixed fortunes in the Counties, but what great swims in both the 400m Individual Medley and the 400m Freestyle! Kimberley’s best finishes came in the 50m and 100m Butterfly and 100m Individual Medley finishing in third place.

In the 12 years age group both Josh Teague and Ose Ikhena had some good performances. Josh finished 4th in the 100m Butterfly, beating Ose. Ose caught my attention in his strongest events – the 50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke events. He also finished with a good second place in the 400m Individual Medley. This will be one of Ose’s strongest events in the future. I felt his best swim was the 100m Freestyle where again he had to settle for 2nd place.

The girls again had very mixed swims. Stephanie Goodale’s Backstroke and Butterfly events were her strongest swims. Amelia Murfin started with 2nd place in the 1500m Freestyle which was by far her best result although she looked good in the 200m Individual Medley

It is very important to me to get the training right for the Counties and it was spot on with the Midland squad starting strong with the 800m and 1500m Freestyle events. I felt swimmers were a little bit flat on the 2nd weekend but there were some fantastic swims on the 3rd and 4th weekends.

So it was important to see how well the County squad swimmers competed. Now I would expect the 9 and 10 year olds to improve, but was extremely pleased to see Sadie Haines producing best times. Brendan Clark who still puts in the sessions, showed some of our Midland squad swimmers how to race. Brendan’s strength and best times came in the Freestyle events. These two swimmers prove that there is life in swimming after Midlands!

Eleanor Reed who was always a better distance swimmer, couldn’t find her old Midland form but still collected a silver medal in the 400m Individual Medley.

Ben Warren not only swims now in County squad but managed to get two holidays in during the build up to the Championships. Despite this his best times came in the 100m and 200m Individual Medley events and his best swim came in the 200m Butterfly, turning Midland squad swimmers over to finish with a credible 3rd place.

‘What Squad’ girl Ruth Singleton went from Midlands to County then back to Midlands and was a bit off form but still managed to finish 2nd in her strongest event, the 200m Butterfly. Emily Dix showed she can still manage 50 metres and in the Butterfly was our fastest Girl/Lady or Ex-Assistant Coach (A little more training would help!)

‘I do it my way’ - as our training times don’t suit the easy lifestyle of our German doctor!

Tony Kiss, again mainly a 50m swimmer, put in a super performance in the 100m Individual Medley - an example to all -proving that this is not just a kids sport. Tony was 8 tenths faster than Ben Pogson in the IM and Tony is the fastest 50m Freestyle swimmer in Boston clocking 26.30, 2 tenths faster than Ben and there are 28 years in between them. The age gap is double Ben’s age.

Keep up those lunch time swims Dr Kiss!

Now our strongest age groups are the 13 years and 14 years where the majority of our Gold medals came from. Ben Pogson was definitely in with a shout of winning Swimmer of the Meet but ruined his chances with the way he swam the 200m Backstroke.

He had a lot of swims and a very good swim on that day, as well as a busy week swimming in the British Nationals in Manchester, but I was not happy and I will not give Swimmer of the Meet to someone I'm not happy with.

Patrick Ikhena had some great swims - so close to going under the min for 100m Free and a super 200m Freestyle. That, along with his gold medals, gets him third place this time.

Sam Wright also had a good Counties winning the Junior Championship in the Breaststroke and Sam has really come on in the last two years but some swims are still a bit flat.

Zak Lomas - what a Championships! - every swim but one a Personal Best and he collected a couple of Gold's as well. Zak started by winning Gold in the 800m Freestyle and an unexpected performance in the 100m Butterfly the following week but had to cope with disappointment in getting beaten in the 100m Backstroke by ex team mate Ross West - what a Championships he had. Zak finished strong winning the 200m Backstroke and a good swim in the 400m Freestyle finishing in 2nd place.

I found it very hard to split Zak and Jessica Murfin and nearly gave it to joint winners. Zak is my second choice for Swimmer of the Meet.

Jessica Murfin is Swimmer of the Meet.

Jessica swam every race apart from the 50m Breaststroke and achieved Personal Best times in every race apart from the 100m Breaststroke. Other persuading factors came in Jessica’s strongest events, the 100m and 200m Butterfly.

In the 100m heat Jessica swam a best time and then went faster again by 1.3 of second in the final. The 200m Butterfly saw Jessica swim faster than Rebecca Price ever has done and we all know how good Rebecca was - a swimmer who broke Melanie Marshall’s records.

Jessica surprised me with her Backstroke swims and it was these swims that tipped it in her favour. In the 100m Backstroke she gained a 3 second PB finishing in a time of 1.15.17 and I’m still not over the shock of her 200m Backstroke – going faster than Katy Thorn and knocking 7 seconds off her best time to finish in a time of 2.35.03 which is also a Midland Qualifying time.