Easter Open Day 3

The closing stages of some clubs’ three-day meets can be anti-climactic, with Sunday evening finalists pulling out in droves and teams declining to stay for medal presentations. One feature of 2004’s Easter Open, though, was that every final lane was full and nearly every medal presented.

The meet climaxed in the 100 free finals, and the last of these again pitted Guernsey’s Ben Lowndes, 50m grand final winner, against Basingstoke’s Daniel Hester, 50 "skins" winner. There was literally nothing in it this time as the pair dead-heated on 52.79.

In the age groups, Alex Macarthur (1.03.70) completed his great weekend with a gold, Garry Dixon got under the minute barrier for fourth in his year (missing bronze by a hundredth) with Kristian Statham fifth and very close to it. Bruno Bamberger’s 57.97 produced another fifth place.

Reading’s fastest two swims overall came in the afternoon heats, as Rob Knott, fresh from an overnight journey from France, swam a near-PB 57.08 in the top age group and butterfly specialist Daniel John put in easily his best ever free time of 57.62, a near two-second PB.

Louisa Downs was again Reading’s top girl, silver in her final behind Wycombe’s Katie Ambridge, and Leanne Haas placed sixth in hers.

Downs began the day with the 400 free and a 13s meet record in 4.34.22. With 1500 and 800 champion Paula Wood on the scene, the pack were always chasing second and third overall. Holly Tanner dug deep to pull back on Wycombe’s Jeni Howard and Newbury’s Emma Harris (17) but her 4.31.62 left her 0.3 behind Howard in the 14s group and fourth overall just three hundredths behind Harris.

Louisa Herring, in transition between Reading’s Age Group and Top squads, scored a 10-second personal best of 4.47.05 to take the 15s bronze and qualify for the Southern Counties championships, while Amy Thomas was also well inside entry in fifth and Charlotte Thompson sixth. Emma Zadrozny was third 16-and-over.

The meet format pitched 11-year-olds into the 12-and-under category, the oldest of whom could have been literally days short of 13, and although Chris Boyce, Adam Barrett and Joshua Alfred placed nine to 11 in their 100 back, they were fourth to sixth 11-year-olds within the field. Garry Dixon and Andrew Chandler both made the 14s final for eventual third and fourth places and Bruno Bamberger also placed fourth in his final.

Louisa Downs put her 100 fly final disappointment behind her with a strong silver to Katie Ambridge in the 200, both girls well inside the age group record in both heat and grand final and Downs’s final time 2.24.58 adding the short-course national time to the long-course one she already has under her belt. Leanne Haas won the 14s group in 2.30.66 and Emma Zadrozny’s 2.28.67 made her Reading’s second quickest and also second in the top age group, where Hannah Lamb placed sixth.

Three boys were well clear of the field in the 400 IM, for which the youngest category was 13-and-under rather than 12. Alex Macarthur entered on 5.48 and Bristol’s Alex Monyard on 5.41, and Macarthur cut the gap to just 0.11 as Monyard won in 5.37.66 with Hillingdon’s Warren Birchie third. Garry Dixon, consistently good, swam just under five minutes for a silver.

Two events later, Macarthur continued his breakthrough meet with a 200 free age group win in 2.18.34 – a Southern Counties qualifying time which would have won the bronze medal in the 13s group – and Dixon added the event to his growing national championships schedule. Needing to beat 2.05.91, he placed second to Wycombe’s Robert Matthews-Stroud in 2.04.55. Bruno Bamberger was fourth in his year in 2.02.02.

Sunday’s short afternoon session brought two Reading medals in the 13s 200 back – a gold for Amy Kunicki in probably her best event in 2.36.89, with silver medallist Rheannon Sandell hard on her heels in 2.38.70. Holly Tanner pulled out all the stops in her heat to place second yet again to Jeni Howard and make the grand final line-up, but succumbed to breathing difficulties and scratched from the evening final.

Kayleigh Taylor, 16, swimming a six-second PB of 2.31.31, was called up as reserve and further improved this to 2.30.34 in an eventual sixth spot.

Harriet Best was sixth 14-year-old in her best swim of the meet and Louisa Herring took another age group bronze, just ahead of Leona Jones.

The boys’ event brought a PB and a 12/U bronze for Sam Flory, who swam only on Sunday. Flory pipped Macarthur, and Dixon’s age group second spot took him to an eventual grand final fifth place in 2.21.65.

Before the 100 freestyles which brought the meet to a great close, Reading produced another grand final winner.

The morning girls’ 100 breaststroke heats placed several Reading girls in their age group finals – Amy Kunicki eventually third but with only the bronze available in the 13s group, with Rheannon Sandell fifth and Lisa O’Brien sixth.

Leanne Haas was second in the 14s final and Charlotte Thompson took the 15s by a whisker from Cardiff's Elizabeth Jenkins, but with no age group medals at stake as the year’s top three all reached the grand final.

One of these was Leona Jones, who rounded off her weekend in the best possible way with a 1.16.32 grand final win, improving her heat time of 1.16.58 and now within 0.33 of a national qualifying time.

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