results of 1st week

Thanet make good start to Kent Juniors

Thanet Swim Club had a squad of 29 swimmers to compete in the first round of the Kent Junior League Division 2 Gala held at the Hartsdown Leisure Centre in Margate on Saturday night.

Thanet had their highest ever finish in last years competition when they secured 3 rd place and that was going to be a hard act to follow this year with Dover Life Guards coming down from the 1 st Division and Greenwich Borough Mariners gaining promotion from the 3 rd Division. This year's contest, on paper, seemed all the more harder with the strong finish last year by runner-up Sevenoaks and by Black Lion who had chased Thanet all the way for the third spot.

Thanet were without three swimmers for the first round and from the start the large audience were in full voice as the swimmers egged each other on to gain points with each race. Sevenoaks opened up a 9 point lead over Thanet and Black Lion who were tied in second place on 39, three points ahead of Dover back in fourth and Greenwich staying ahead of Whitedarts.

At the 22 event stage, Sevenoaks had increased their total to 102 points leaving a gap of 15 points between them and Black Lion who now held a 3 point lead over Thanet with Dover a further 6 points behind. Greenwich and Whitedarts were already off the trail and stuck in battle to avoid the bottom finish.

The positions took a big twist by the 31 event stage. Sevenoaks increased their lead to 22 points over Black Lion but Dover had passed Thanet and moved into third place only 5 points adrift of Black Lion and opening a 4 point gap on Thanet. In the next count, with 40 events gone Dover held a 6 point lead on Thanet but Black Lion had pulled away from Dover and distanced themselves by 16 points. That strong section by Black Lion had brought them back to within 15 points of the early leader Sevenoaks.

In the last nine events, Thanet slipped a further 3 points behind Dover who had reduced Black Lions lead on them to just 11 points but a great finish by Sevenoaks saw them pull away from Black Lion to leave themselves 29 points in the clear. There was nearly a 50 point gap back to Greenwich who came out on top from their battle with Whitedarts.

The Thanet team achieved 14 Personal Best times and by the end of the evening had gained a secure fourth place, which was a great achievement by all the swimmers having still kept such a narrow margin between themselves and second spot. Thanet will build on this performance and a strong challenge in the remaining rounds should see them climb up the table.

There are three rounds in the Kent Junior league, the next being in September and the final in November with the top and bottom teams at the end of the series being promoted and relegated respectively. There are five divisions, each consisting of six clubs and the squads can only consist of swimmers aged from nine up to thirteen year olds.

Kent Junior League Division Two 1 st Round Result and Table Standing

1 Sevenoaks Swimming Club 6 pts 222 gpts

2 Black Lion Swimming Club 5 pts 193 gpts

3 Dover Life Guards 4 pts 182 gpts

4 Thanet Swim Club 3 pts 173 gpts

5 Greenwich Borough Mariners 2 pts 125 gpts