Reading Royals win 12yrs and under Team gold

Reading Royals won the 12yrs and under free team event on day two of the Swim England Synchro National Age Group Championships 2017.

They were almost two seconds ahead of the rest of the field in their free routine, scoring 58.9000. They swam an upbeat and jazzy routine to Marvelous Party from The Halcyon TV Series soundtrack.

Madeleine Staples, Rebecca Saunders, Hayley Pullen, Amelia Gelder, Eva Patrick, Louisa Horlock, Florence Blinkhorn and Charlie Razzell swam a routine with a fairly high difficulty.

However, they executed most of their technical elements well and finished with 112.2570 overall.

Victory brought Reading their fourth consecutive gold in the National Age Group U12 Team event.

It also completed a hat-trick of golds for Staples in the Solo, Duet and Free events.

“We started off as a new team,” said Staples. “Only three of us had swum together before and we’ve progressed a lot this year.

“Some people in the team have come on massively and the team routine is looking good.

“I was part of the team that won last year as well so there was a bit of expectation. We just went out and did our best though. We scored more than we expected. We didn’t realise we’d score that high so we’re all really happy.”

Walsall secure silver medal

Walsall took the second spot on the podium despite receiving a penalty for being a swimmer down.

The team of Catrise Hart, Georgia Baker, Katie Lopez, Olivia Timms, Taliah Alvez, Treana Hart and Maya Mianowana swam a fast-paced routine to Bamboo from Cirque Du Soleil. They scored 110.5961 overall for a silver medal.

London Regional won the bronze medal for their performance to Boogie Wonderland by Brittany Murphy from the film Happy Feet.

Aisling Khan, Carla Pietrafesa, Charley Joyce, Florence Ford, Lily Helasi, Milan Kadrok, Olivija Urbonaite and Rheya Joseph scored 56.0000 to finish with 109.8708 overall.

12 & Under Team Results