Two boys from Caterham brought home 18 medals between them from the Surrey County Swimming Championships earlier this year. The two-weekend event took place on 20 and 21 January, and 3 and 4 February at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford.
Peter Fensom came first in the 13-year-old age category, after entering 16 events and medalling in 14 of them. He picked up five golds, seven silvers and two bronze medals over a total of 23 races, which included preliminary heats and finals.
Alister Gironella finished second overall in the 14-year-old age group, qualifying for and swimming in 12 events, comprising 17 races. He was awarded three silvers and a bronze, and narrowly missed out on a medal in three further races.
Both boys swim for Croydon Amphibians Swimming Club, a family-friendly club with many swimmers competing on a national level. It has a swim school for beginners, competition squads, a fitness squad, a Masters club and water polo teams for all ages. The club also offers training opportunities at a Spanish summer camp for swimmers in their top squads, as well as a training camp with Partizan Waterpolo Club in Serbia.
Peter, who also enjoys water polo, rugby and climbing, says his heroes are Arun Oelkers, a club member who is aiming to become part of the GB Olympic team, and double gold Olympic medal winner Michael Phelps.
Alister’s goal is to represent England in the GB summer championships in Sheffield this year. Outside the pool he plays hockey and is an army cadet.
Croydon Amphibians head coach Patryk Folinski said:
“Peter and Alister represent Croydon Amphibians at county and regional level. The last County Championships was one of the best for them. Peter collected an incredible 14 medals in his age category, Alister collected four medals in the 14-year-old age group. They both train four to five times a week, working on technique, endurance, speed and racing tactic/strategy.
Over the last three months they have been working on strength and technique to improve their main stroke. Alister mainly worked on the backstroke and front crawl, Peter mainly on the front crawl, butterfly and some of the individual medley. They also worked on speed throughout January to prepare for the Surrey Championships and their hard work paid off.
Throughout April, they will be developing their endurance and speed in order to improve their county results at the London Summer Regional Championships and possibly qualify for their first Summer Nationals, to be held in Sheffield in July and August.
They both show great potential to achieve these goals and as their coach, I am extremely proud to work with them and see their constant improvement and passion every time they train.”
