Guildford City SC crowned 2022 National Arena Junior League champions

The second National Arena Junior League Grand Final was won by Guildford City Swimming Club in an exciting Grand Final on Saturday.

The event at the Alan Higgs Centre, Coventry featured 33 events for swimmers between the ages of 9-12 years old.

Swimmers raced in both individual and relay events on short course with Guildford coming out on top with a total of 192 points across the competition.

In a close contest, the Surrey based club finished just ahead of Camden Swiss (179), who were only 13 points behind, with Chelsea & Westminster finishing third with a total score of 159 points.

Guildford City also took home three of the day’s top swimmers awards with Olivia Hagberg voted the best girls 9/10 Years swimmer and Joseph Schmitt the top boys 11 Years swimmer.

Guildford’s Ella Humphries and Scarlett Sheppard were both recognised for their performances with the award for the leading Girls 12 Years swimmers.

Stockport Metro won two of the other three top swimmer awards with Autumn Claxton and Jake Thistlewood taking the title in the Girls 11 Years and Boys 9/10 Years categories respectively.

The final top swimmer award went to Camden Swiss’ Martin Vermaat in the Boys 12 Years category.

“An utterly amazing performance”

After a successful day for the club, Guildford City’s Junior Age Group coach Sam Tierney was proud of the clubs performance saying: “This was an utterly amazing performance from every member of our team.

“They all supported each other and swam out of their skins, whether that was racing as an individual or in relay events.

“It’s been a brilliant day which we’ve all enjoyed and I would like to thank the other teams for such a great competition and all of the officials and helpers who put on such a great meet.”

Camden Swiss may have been runners up overall but they were victorious in the Relay Challenge event.

The Relay Challenge is a Mixed 6x50m Freestyle relay with one boy and one girl from each of the age-groups.

Camden Swiss won the event with a total time of 3:13.37 with Chelsea & Westminster just three seconds further back (3:16.70) whilst Wycombe District (3:19.81) took the final podium spot after edging out Stockport Metro (3:19.94) by just 0.13.

Chelsea & Westminster took home the Best Club Supporters Award after their fans helped inspire them to an impressive third place finish overall.