HARPENDEN were back in competition for the first time in 2010 at the weekend swimming in the Watford County Qualifier Open Meet. The club took their largest ever contingent of swimmers to the meet and numbering 54 – almost half the membership – they made

HARPENDEN were back in competition for the first time in 2010 at the weekend swimming in the Watford County Qualifier Open Meet.

The club took their largest ever contingent of swimmers to the meet and numbering 54 - almost half the membership - they made an imposing site on poolside.

The performances in the pool were quite impressive as well. Between them, the swimmers had 225 swims and achieved 160 personal best times.

They came away from the meet with a very impressive haul of medals, 36 gold; 24 silver; 19 bronze and 13 times that were deemed too fast for the meet. The swimmers also clocked up another 45 new County Qualifying times between them.

Top medal haul for the day went to 15-year-old Izzy Thompson who went home with four gold, two silver and a bronze and a couple of PBs closely followed by 16-year-old Ellen Crick with four gold, two silvers and three PBs.

Morgan Pugh (17) collected four gold, one silver and five PBs while Georgie Smith (16) took home four gold medals and four PBs.

Two of the club's younger members also collected medals with nine-year-old Daniel McCabe getting PBs in both his races including an impressive 18-second PB for his 200 Breaststroke which he finished in 4:01.31 a fantastic 35 seconds inside the qualifying time for the upcoming County Championships. Daniel collected a bronze medal for his efforts.

Ben Galvin (10) recorded PBs in four of his six races, collecting two bronze medals and four new county qualifying times. Ben improved on his 100IM time recording a time of 1:37.71 well inside the 1:44 qualifying time.

The club are in action over the next two weekends at the Bishop's Stortford Open Meet and the Barnet Copthall Open where they are hoping to add to their already impressive County Qualifier list.

Also looming on the horizon is the club's annual swim camp at Bath where the coaches set the swimmers an exhausting schedule in the 50m pool in preparation for the County Championships.

The whole club is really upbeat with the performances and are looking forward to the largest contingent from the club being present at the County Championships in March.