Success in the Bath Cup - Bronze medals in the freestyle and the relay!

A squad of six Reed’s swimmers, captained for the last time by Upper Sixth Former, Matt Ferguson, travelled to the London Aquatic Centre to compete in the Bath Cup, the premier swimming competition for independent schools from all parts of Britain.

With a record 80 schools attending, we knew the competition would be tough, although we were quietly confident of a place in the finals of both the freestyle and medley events.

The morning started with the Bath Cup, a 4x100m freestyle relay. Despite a quick turnaround from warm-up to heat, the team (Mack Downey, Finlay Tattersdill, Callum Wimble and Matt Ferguson) swam well to secure a place in the final with a time of 3:46.92, the third fastest of the heats. With Cameron White swapping in for Mack, the boys swam faster in the final to post a time of 3:44.62, ensuring we finished in Third place winning the Bronze medal, behind only a very strong Harrow and the defending champions, Stewart’s Melville College, from Edinburgh, who set a new record in their victory. 

After lunch, we returned to the pool to compete in the newly named John Nalson Medley relay. Again, the team swam well as we qualified for the final with the fourth fastest time. In the final, with the new professional coach, Steve Luff, giving the team licence to push with their takeovers, we improved our time by 1.3 seconds as we powered our way to another Bronze medal!

All the boys should be extremely proud of their efforts to finish above 76 other schools in both events, including the swimming powerhouses of Whitgift, Trinity, and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.                                                                                                       
Grayson Stuckey, Head of Swimming