
Saxon Crown Autumn Showdown - 15th & 16th October 2022
15 Oct 2022
3.45pm on Sunday 16th October was a significant time for Saxon Crown. Why? Because the club’s first home gala for several years – Saxon Crown’s Autumn Showdown - had successfully concluded after two days of brilliant competition. And what a tremendous success it was, confirmed most emphatically by the compliments received from the visiting coaches, swimmers and spectators.
The lead up was very nervy. New laptops, new printers and a new Hytek system for recording times and results and most significantly a new set of people running the show for whom this was a first. Only Brennan, a dab hand at installing the touch pads and starter’s equipment, had been here before; and Lorraine with lots of successful Gala Secretary experience, but not the huge and demanding task she took on here of hosting a gala. And to crown it all, Beckenham Swimming Club decided to run their own gala with matching events over the very same weekend.
Thankfully, we received a good response from other clubs wishing to come to our gala and have made some new friends along the way who, without prompting, have expressed a strong wish to come again. Brompton SC in particular, who came with over 70 swimmers; our good friends from Bexley with more than 50 swimmers; significant numbers from Southwark Aquatics and Woodside and Thornton Heath; and individual entries from White Oak, Greenwich Royals, Sevenoaks, Bromley and Beckenham. And as the home club, Saxon Crown provided 81 competitors racing against the formidable entrants from these nine other clubs.
The fact that the event ran so smoothly is down to a whole number of people who worked so hard before and during the competition. Lewisham Council supported us in holding the event at Glass Mill; Ashley, our main contact at GLL (Better), was brilliantly supportive and helpful beforehand as were his colleague Murray and the other staff who were on duty over the weekend. What impressed our visitors most was the fantastic work of our 25 volunteers who looked after swimmers, coaches, spectators and officials so well. Crucially Lorraine and the team operating the new recording system made a dream debut. And no competition can function without the referees and officials who give their time and expertise voluntarily for the benefit of the young swimmers.
So what about the performance of our swimmers? The full results are on the website under Events/Results. Suffice it to say that PBs were in abundance and special mention should be made of our multiple gold medal winners headed by Abdul-Aziz Bakar with an incredible 9 followed by: Ayotunde Dauda and Maisie van der Ploeg both with 5; Harry Gibb with 4; Erin O’Hara and Andre Nimoh both with 3; and Timi Adelowo and Thomas Armstrong with 2 each.
Other Saxon medal winners were:
Gold: Abigail Kenton; Alfie Horbacki; Temir Tengayev; Fiachra Brady; and James Sugrue.
Silver: Freya Sheard and Ellie Harden with 3 each; Matthew Shirley, Alfie Horbacki, Andre Nimoh, Amelie Fairhurst, Molly Ferrigan, Fiachra Brady, Anyka Lin and Erin O’Hara with 2 each; and Kerem Kucukkaramuklu, Orla Renny, Darragh Brady, Antonina Wieczorek, Cian Richardson, Timi Adelowo, Max Wainwright, Ailish O’Hara, Lenny Lewis, Alex Lin, Alejandro Martinez, Paris Fairhurst, Harry Gibb, Marlena van der Ploeg, Ayotunde Dauda and Lyla Gibb all picking up a silver.
Bronze: Lydia Glossop, Paris Fairhurst and James Sugrue top the bronze medallists with 3 each: Ruby Gold, Florence de Veras, Mateo Mathers, Orla Renny, Alexandria Forsyth, Madison Williams and Harry Gibb each grabbed 2; and Cian Richardson, Matthew Shirley, Rose Brooking, Honor Griffiths, Roman Munroe, Dana Andagoya, Elle Harden, Harry Armstrong, Florence Glossop, Freya Sheard, Timi Adelowo, Erin O’Hara, Ayotunde Dauda, Darragh Brady, Sapphire Jordan, Polly Lyon, Charlotte Redman and Andre Nimoh all earned themselves a bronze.