Swim England National Inter-County Championships Report

Ken the Kent Horse our new Kent Team Mascot took the credit for giving the team the support that resulted in the Kent Team bringing the title back down south for the second time in three years and demonstrating to the rest of the UK the amazing junior talent we have here in Kent despite our challenging access to facilities.

The team had a very strong start to the event, unexpectedly going 9 points up on the first two events and never looked back. They held the lead by a narrow margin for much of the event, only falling into second for a few events when Yorkshire and other counties had a run of Junior Internationals back to back.

We held our predicted finishing position or finished higher in all but a couple of races and it is this ‘stepping up’ by the swimmers for their county that gave the level of consistency and small gains to take the win by the narrowest of margins in the final relay!

The staff worked very well together, creating a performance environment and giving the swimmers vital experience of a representative team environment, preparing them for regional and national teams that many of them have the potential of achieving.

What has now become the famous ‘Kent Team Support Band’ was mostly in time led by our resident swimmer come musician, Beckenham’s Jeremiah Carnegie who put a rhythmic heartbeat into the team’s support.

The swimmers’ performances were exceptional and every one of them gave their very best and some overcame adversity too….Jess Long had a heroic 100m Fly with goggles around her neck from the start but battled on for the sake of the team to salvage as many points as she could despite being strangled by said goggles on every turn! Not the performance she wanted but she showed incredible grit and determination.

A huge thank you goes out to all the Kent home coaches for preparing the swimmers so well and to the Team Staff and Official for giving up their weekend to support the team, watched on by our President Erica Moo from the guest seats.

If you are interested in Coaching or Team Managing on next year’s team please do reach out and let John Handley know!

Marie Atkinson-Brian - Kent Swimming Team Manager