Alexander Tew completes gold medal hat-trick in 800m freestyle

York City’s Alexander Tew made it a hat-trick of golds at the GoCardless Swim England National Summer Meet after adding 800m freestyle gold.

The 15-year-old won the 14/15 Years title, in the heat declared winner event, after a stunning swim which was around five seconds faster than runner-up Fynn Adams.

His time 8:49.96 saw him go under nine minutes for the first time in his career as he touched the wall first in heat six in and amongst a number of strong older swimmers.

The result made him a double distance champion after his victory in the 1500m event on Monday as well as taking the 400m freestyle title on Tuesday evening.

It was the same podium as that 400m final as Teddington swimmer Adams this time took second ahead of Joshua Drury-Tew.

They were two of four other swimmers to also break that nine-minute barrier with Adams winning silver in 8:54.18. Drury-Tew of Birmingham finished in 8:57.69 for bronze.

Archie McGuire made his way onto the top step of the podium for the first time to kick off the Open/Male 800m Freestyle events.

After having to settle for bronze in both the 400m and 1500m Freestyle races in the past couple of days, he won 12/13 Years gold in a new lifetime best time of 9:06.74.

His outstanding swim knocked just more than 13 seconds off his previous best and entry time, set at the City of Sheffield Premier Open Meet in March.

It meant that the Northumberland and Durham Performance athlete finished around three seconds ahead of TigersJersey swimmer Jack Militis.

He clocked in at 9:09.39 to take second and join once again McGuire on the podium after his 400m gold and 1500m silver.

The bronze medal went to Altrincham’s Thomas Rickels who’s time was around half a second quicker than fourth place man Peter Fensom (Croydon Amphibians).

The pair swam in the same heat with Rickels managing to hold onto the narrow advantage over his rival throughout their 16 lengths in the pool.

Just 0.25 seconds split Daniel Belsey and Oscar Bellinger’s times as they topped the 16 Years 800m Freestyle.

It was Belsey who topped the timings after setting a stunning effort which broke his personal best from last year’s British Summer Championships by around three seconds.

He clocked in at 8:45.23 in his heat, which left him waiting to see if he’d won gold with Bellinger amongst the swimmers competing later in the session.

Bellinger put in a brilliant final 50m’s as he chased the target time but just missed out despite breaking his own personal best by a similar margin.

Northampton’s Edun Rowe wasn’t far off the pair, clocking in at 8:47.99 to book his spot on the podium.

Jonathan Thring needed to go under his seasons best to secure a medal and he did just that on his way to gold. The Seagulls Swimming Club man beat that time by almost eight seconds to end his season on a high.

Thring won the 17 Years crown by just under four seconds thanks to a time of 8:42.34 to finish ahead of Maidenhead’s Anton Supov.

He recorded a time of 8:46.26 in second with Manav Mistry of Northampton in third place with a 8:49.50.

James Froggatt and Matthew Warburton went stroke for stroke throughout the final heat as they battled it out for 18 Years and Over 800m Freestyle gold.

Warburton pushed hard throughout the final 800m’s but Froggatt kept enough in the tank to hold on and win the race to the wall by around half a second.

The City of Birmingham man took the title in a time of 8:20.47 with Warburton just behind on 8:21.01 for the City of Liverpool.

Third place in that final heat and in the age group was 19-year-old Salford swimmer Alexander Volkovoy.

He tried to keep within touch of the leading pair but ended up securing a solid swim to give him the bronze. He finished in 8:28.67 around 1.5 seconds ahead of fourth place Daniel Cox (Birmingham University).

Akaash Das on the top step once again

The morning heats session also saw two para swimming medals given out in the MC 400m Freestyle events.

We started off with the open/male event where Akaash Das won his second gold and third medal of the meet after finishing just two points ahead of Repton’s Owen Johnson.

The Oswestry Otters swimmer set a time of 5:21.53 as he finished on a total of 560 points to Johnson’s 558.

Johnson was the fastest across the eight lengths in the race to secure second, clocking in at 4:48.64 to earn the S10 swimmer a silver medal.

They were the standout pair in a strong race that saw City of Coventry’s Scott Hadley complete the podium. The 26-year-old finished the race in 5:43.97 for a score of 458 points and a bronze medal.

Stephanie Booth of Borough of Kirklees topped the standings in the Female MC 400m Freestyle.

She set the highest score and the fastest time as she motored away to take the gold medal. In an all S10 podium, Booth’s time of 5:16.61 saw her finish around six seconds ahead of second place Eva French.

Nuneaton’s French won another silver medal at this year’s Championships after her joint second place in the 100m freestyle on day two.

Her time was a 5:22.80 with Aquabears’ Fallon Cooney winning the bronze.

For all the results from the GoCardless Swim England National Summer Meet 2024, click here.

Images: Will Johnston Photography