National Arena League (Round 2)
Tuesday 16th November 2021
On the 13th of November, our top swimmers from each age group attended Round 2 of the National Arena League. It was an intense evening of relays and individuals. Leading out the schedule of races were Samantha Jackson and Max Peel who swam the 200m Individual Medley, a classic starter to a team gala. Both Samantha and Max swam incredibly well with Samantha coming in 2nd place to start off the night. This was followed by a series of medley and freestyle relays before the individual races began. Throughout the gala, our swimmers put all their training into action. Plenty of personal bests were achieved, and overall, our swimmers came top 3 in 17 events with honourable mentions to Charlotte Field and Samuel Ryan for gaining 1st place positions in the 13/U 100m Breaststroke (Charlotte) and 15/U 100m Backstroke (Samuel). Towards the end of the night the relays started again. This is where fitness pays off as the swimmers put everything they have left in the tank into a final 50m swim before it's time to go home and often have a well-earned McDonalds. The Mixed open freestyle relay closes out the gala and always earns the award for loudest event of the night. All the clubs gather around the edge of the pool to cheer the top swimmers of their club into a final showdown. On Saturday evening we had four of our fastest front crawl swimmers to take on this challenge. Max Peel lead out the final relay with a time of 25.46, followed by Samantha Jackson swimming a 28.65, then Blythe Jolley-Ellis keeping up the pace with a 28.74 and finally Ben Langdown finishing the relay with a 25.54 and taking 2nd place overall. After a lot of fast and tough races overall Orpington Ojays managed to come 4th. Well done to all the swimmers who made the journey to Maidstone and swam their absolute best, achieving many personal bests and cheering on their teammates as loud as they can. We look forwards to seeing everyone again at the next gala!