JERSEY’S Calligo Tigers are making a habit of performing on the national stage, returning from the recent Aquatics GB Summer Championships with a plethora of medals.
Tigers’ haul from Sheffield consisted of a remarkable seven British national age group titles, two silver medals, four bronze and a further four top ten finishes.
If that was not enough, the swimmers managed to break four senior Island records, as well as a myriad of club open and age group records.
Head coach Nathan Jegou was full of praise for his young charges: “It’s been a truly fantastic week.
“We always say, focus on swimming a lifetime best, as that’s the only thing you can control.
“Working to that mindset, we managed to achieve some superb results, including many personal bests.”
After an impressive and well documented first five days of competition, Tigers continued to push into day
six, as Hannah Sterry posted a personal best time in the Ladies 400m Individual Medley, placing 19th in the 15 years age bracket In the same discipline, Clara Ginnis narrowly missed out on another final, finishing in
13th place for the Ladies 17 years 400m IM.
Despite missing out on the final, Ginnis performed admirably across the competition, finishing all her races inside the top 15.
In the 16 years 200 IM event, Isaac Thompson enjoyed a solid swim to reach the final and finish eighth.
Much like earlier in the week when Filip Nowacki and Sam Sterry met in the 400m IM final, the pair battled it out again in the final of the 17 years 200m IM.
Nowacki matched the Island record to claim the silver medal while, in the final leg of the race, Sterry clawed his way back into podium contention to bring home his third bronze of the week.
On the seventh and final day of the competition, Hannah Sterry concluded her impressive week with a strong 17th-place finish in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke.
Meanwhile, Dan Papworth, Joe Swart, Matthew Deffains and Nowacki teamed up for the Men’s 4x100m Medley relay, posting a top-20 finish in the first male relay the club has contested in over a decade.
Concluding with the ultimate round of finals, the Men’s 17 years 400m Freestyle saw two Tigers competing once again.
Deffains left it all out there in the opening 200m to come home in a respectable eighth place.
However, teammate Sam Sterry stole the show, going sub four minutes for the first time, to smash the Island record and claim his third British title of the week.
In the Men’s 16 years 200m Backstroke, Thompson was involved in one of the best races of the night.
Hot on the heels of a strong Leeds-based swimmer, the Islander secured a personal best, en route to a silver medal and missing out on gold by four hundredths of a second.
Reflecting on the week, Jegou concluded: “I couldn’t be happier for my swimmers.
“Now they can enjoy a well-earned rest over the summer, but the season hasn’t finished yet.
“The Swim England Nationals are this week and some of our team are now competing there.”
Elsewhere, for the talented contingent of Jersey swimmers, last weekend saw the start of the Swim England open-water events.
Isaac Dodds started the event off strong for the Jersey contingent, swimming his way to first place in the Men’s Open 7.5km race.
One hour and thirty minutes of swimming saw him claim the gold medal by less than one second.
Isaac’s sister, Elsa, competed in the Women’s 14 years 5km event and, in a strong field, she claimed a superb ninth-place finish.
In the Women’s 13 years 3km race, Ellie Grant survived tough conditions to also claim a ninth-place finish.
Updates on this week’s Swim England National Summer Meet to follow.
