After another successful year in the pool, Stocksbridge Pentaqua held their awards night at The Venue on Saturday 9th December 2017.
In the Yorkshire county events held at Ponds Forge and Leeds 11 swimmers medalled or were finalists: Lola Yoxall, Makyle Iqbal, Jake Adams, Devin Kellett, Hannah Samuel, Louie Ennis, Paddy Neill, Logan Price, Ben Croft, Lucy Hatfield and James Hook.
In the North Eastern events held at Ponds Forge and Sunderland there were 5 medalists and finalists; Devin Kellett, Makyke Iqbal, Logan Price, Finley McNicholas and Ben Croft. Nicola Fraser was part of a four person ladies team that successfully completed a cross Channel swim in a world record time.
Rebecca Milnes was part of a mixed Masters team which won the European 4 x 200m freestyle team and also broke the World Record in the same event.
David Kershaw, Nicola Fraser, Lucy Bye and Andrew Neal came 2nd in the Medley and Freestyle relay events at the Yorkshire Masters Championships.
Logan Price won the Stocksbridge Town Council Award for achieving most points at the Stocksbridge Pentaqua Annual Open Gala.
Makyle Iqbal won the Cressy Club Award for achieving the best performances throughout the year at Yorkshire, North Eastern and events around the country.
In team events Stocksbridge Pentaqua maintained their stay in the top division of the Barnsley Minor League against clubs at least twice their size. Stocksbridge Pentaqua are based at Stocksbridge Community Leisure Centre and have strong links with the centre managements of both Stocksbridge and Hoyland Leisure Centres, and management at the Sheffield Swim School.
Over the year Stocksbridge Pentaqua swimmers have competed up and down the country at numerous events gaining medals, placings in finals and have averaged over 65% personal best times at most of the events.
The achievements are extremely good for such a small club with limited resources, and the reputation of Stocksbridge is once again gaining momentum in the swimming fraternity. The club is getting closer to achieving its aim of producing National swimmers on a regular basis that will compete against the cream of the country. The club is SwimMark and Aquamark accredited, is run by volunteers, and has a strong link with Sheffield City Council’s Swimming Training Scheme and a link whereby potential ‘Olympians’ can join the World Class Programme at Ponds Forge.
Stocksbridge Pentaqua would like to thank Liberty Steels and everyone who supported their major fund raising event, the Stocksbridge Pentaqua Open Gala hosted by the club each April, where over 350 swimmers from come to compete at Ponds Forge Leisure Centre. The monies from this event, alongside many other various fund raising activities, are ploughed back into the club for the benefit of its members which enables the club to offset the financial burden of pool hire fees, purchasing equipment, and keeping training fees as low as possible.
Anyone wishing to know more about Stocksbridge Pentaqua Swimming Club can contact the club at pentaqua.clubroom@gmail.com