Bishop's Stortford Swimming Club's female championship 200m medley relay team win thrilling gold medal at Hertfordshire County Championships

Bishop's Stortford Swimming Club's female championship 200m medley relay team won a thrilling gold medal on the second weekend of the Hertfordshire County Championships.

The squad, comprising Niamh James (backstroke), Lauren Gore (breaststroke), Emma Fields (butterfly) and Laura Burgess (freestyle), won a nail-biting race against relay specialists Hatfield.

The swimmers from the two clubs were so evenly matched that both freestylers left the blocks at the same time for the final leg and it came down to the touch at the end, with Burgess not breathing for the final part of the length and stretching to give Stortford the gold by 0.19sec in a time of 2min 1.55sec.

Over the whole weekend, Stortford also claimed four gold, five Silver and seven bronze age-group medals along with 38 top-eight finishes.

The most successful age-group medallist was Dylan Davenport, in the 14-years age group, who secured two golds (50m and 100m freestyle), one silver (50m butterfly) and a fourth-place finish (100m individual medley.

A special mention must go to Noah Conroy who swam in the 10/11 age group in his first county championships and won two bronze medals (50m butterfly and 100m freestyle) as well as coming ninth in the 50m freestyle.

Swimmers additionally competed to be crowned Hertfordshire junior (15 and under) and open (10 years and over) champions, with five having great success.

In the junior championships, Ella Greatbatch took gold in the 100m breaststroke and Robert Gor got bronze in the 200m breaststroke.

In the open championships, Callum Cox got the gold award in 50m butterfly, silver in 100m freestyle and bronze in 50m freestyle.

Emma Fields achieved silver in the 50m butterfly and bronze in 50m Freestyle while Lauren Gore got bronze in the 100m breaststroke.

BSSC age-group medals: Gold - Dylan Davenport (50m & 100m freestyle, 14 years), Ella Greatbatch (100m breaststroke, 15 years), Callum Cox (50m butterfly, 16+ years); Silver - Elliot Hall (50m butterfly, 13 years), Dylan Davenport (50m butterfly, 14 years), Callum Cox (100m freestyle, 16+ years), Emma Fields (50m freestyle & 50m butterfly, 16+ years); Bronze - Noah Conroy (50m butterfly & 100m freestyle, 10/11 years), Molly Greatbatch (100m breaststroke, 13 years), Robert Gor (200m breaststroke, 15 years), Callum Cox (50m freestyle, 16+ years), Laura Burgess (50m freestyle, 16+ years), Lauren Gore (100m breaststroke, 16+ years).