Acton Swimming Club's young squad put in a courageous performance in the first round of the National Speedo competition held at Eltham on Saturday, October 11.
The other competing clubs - Bexley, Greenwich, Greenwich Borough Mariners, Cheshunt, Halstead and Tring - had a much bigger complement of older swimmers.
But they were awed by the excellent performances of 14-year-old Bianca de Zoysa and her 12-year-old brother Jordan, who swam very well in the inaugural races the Open 200m IM, designed for swimmers over the age 16.
The nine to 11-year-old boys' team swimmer Adam Plavsic had a convincing win in the 50m breaststroke.
Adam, Lewis Rodriguez, Takuro Matsui and Josh Wood were second in the freestyle relay, and third places were good achievements for Plavsic, Matsui and Wood in the individual backstroke, fly and freestyle races.
Also swimming well to achieve third places were Maisie Preston, 12, in the 100m freestyle, the 12-13-year-old boys' freestyle relay team of Tatsuki Kawagishi, Max Honigsbaum, Ryan Beresford and Jordan de Zoysa, and the 14-15-year-old girls' team of Bianca de Zoysa, Maisie Preston, Ugne Vijeikyte and Kamila Mac.
Acton's masters, clearly on a roll, dominated the Berks and South Bucks Open masters' meet at Maidenhead, coming home with a more than respectable haul of 37 medals - 14 gold, 9 silver and 14 bronze.
Leading the medal table was Kath Rose (49) with 4 gold and 2 silvers, with Trevor Rose (57) and Malcolm Munro (61) just behind with 3 gold and 1 silver medal apiece. Tony Pepper (41) won 2 gold and 3 bronze medals and Bridget Preston (53) and Ian Pritchard (44) took gold, with Bridget also winning one silver and 3 bronze medals.
Other silver and bronze medallists included Anthony Kay (45), Grant Venner (41), Martin Fox (54), Cezar Pineda (23), Salif Dallio (27) and David Math-eson (67).
Anthony Kay, Trevor Porter, Ian Pritchard and Martin Fox, with a combined age of more than 200 years, won silver in the 200 years freestyle, and 2 medley teams of Munro, Venner, Kay, Pepper, Porter and Dallio took bronze in the "younger" 160 age group.
* Swimmers and teachers who would like to share the Acton experience should contact Philippa Ervin on 07717173837.
