RUGBY Artistic Swimming Club celebrated triple medal success at this year’s Swim England Artistic Swimming National Age Groups Championships (NAGS) – the pinnacle of competition for artistic swimmers in their age groups across the country
Aaron Lee and Kitty Tyers won gold in the mixed duet (12 and under) category for their routine ‘It Takes Two’ whilst Olivia Barry and Chloe Bartholomew took silver in the duet (12 and under) for their High School Musical themed routine.
Aaron Lee (left) and Kitty Tyers (right) with their gold medals. Picture. Hannah Secher.
The club also secured silver in the free team (12 and under) category represented by Olivia, Chloe, Saranne Black, Lola Huett, Jemma King, Agata Scerbakova and Kitty for their routine to ‘I’m Still Standing’ – missing out on gold by just 0.1 of a mark.
In total, Rugby SC were represented in seven of the categories by 14 swimmers across two age groups – 12 and under and 13-15 years.
The latter group was extremely competitive and included England age squad representatives with Rugby’s Lola Dudkowsky and Olivia Tyers achieving a superb fourth place finish in the duet category for their salsa inspired routine.
And Lola and Olivia helped Rugby finish fourth in the free team category – for their Kung Fu Panda themed routine – with the pair joined by Matilda John, Josephine Mozley, India Townsend and Poppy Williams.
Head Coach Hannah Secher said: “A fantastic result for our 12 and under free team, just narrowly pipped to the win, nevertheless a fantastic result and they have worked so hard some tremendous achievements from our duets too.”
A proud parent added: “The swimmers took all of this in their stride and did themselves and the Club proud thanks to their commitment and to the commitment and dedication of their team of coaches and volunteers.”
Olivia, Lola and Chloe also represented Rugby in the solo category and all achieved places in the final 12 for their self-choreographed routines with Josephine and Poppy competing in the 13-15 years solo event with two great self-choreographed swims.
The swimmers achieved this despite their training time in the pool being significantly reduced due to coronavirus restrictions that have been in place over the last 18 months with the NAGS held virtually for the first time after the competition was originally due to take place in March earlier this year.
Rugby SC are now preparing for NAGS 2022 which takes place in March next year and will hopefully provide swimmers with a return to face-to-face competition.
Anyone feeling inspired to try artistic swimming in Rugby can contact head coach Secher at [email protected].
