THE Borough of Southend squad had a fantastic set of results at this year’s East Regional Championships, finishing as the highest ranked Essex club and bringing home a hatful of medals.

Held over three weekends in the Olympic sized pool at the University of East Anglia, Norwich the event saw 44 clubs compete.

BOSS were seventh overall and fifth place in the BAGCAT competition. Leading the way for BOSS in the age group championships were Barton Townley and Karis Ellerby, both of who continue to impress since increasing their training over the past year.

Competing in the boys 12 years age group, Townley had convincing victories in both his backstroke events. In the 200 he destroyed the field at the halfway mark to come home way under the national qualifying time, a feat he repeated in the 100. Showing his strength in all strokes, Townley went on to pick up double gold in the 200 and 400 IM, both also in national qualifying times. Turning his attention to what is a reasonably new event for him, Barton set personal bests in both the heat and final of the 200 butterfly to steal gold after qualifying second fastest. Having already set his 800 national qualifying time, Townley dropped down to swim the 200 and 400 freestyle where he narrowly missed more national marks on his way to securing silver and bronze respectively.

Ellerby continued her recent rapid improvement with some impressive displays in the girls’ 11 years age group. Her most exciting swim came in the 200 breaststroke where she set a great PB in the heat to qualify third fastest. In the final Ellerby took the race by storm, leading at the turn and fighting hard all the way until the final few metres when she out touched all to win gold in a time five seconds quicker than the heat. This was her fift national qualifying time, and she secured her sixth in the final of the 200 IM.

Freestyle continues to be Ellerby’s strongest stroke this season, and she showed why with double victories in the 800 and 1,500, narrowly missing the regional championship record in the latter. With bronze in the 400 FS, she went on to pick up silver in the 200 BF, as well as 4th (100 breaststroke), 5th (100m BF) and 6th (200m FS).

Ellerby is now also preparing for the forthcoming national championships in Sheffield.