North Norfolk Vikings had to raise their standard by swimming in a gala which included clubs from across the region at the UEA Sports Park, Norwich. Swimmers found it more competitive than normal but according to their coach the experience would have done them good.

Reuben Seaman won two backstroke medals, all in personal best times He was involved in the 200m when he touched a split second ahead of his nearest rival  in  2:48.22, for gold and leaving 6 swimmers behind him. Then, over the sprint distance of 50m, the 13 year old added a silver in 36.74 by another split second However, he was 2 seconds adrift of the gold but  this time he left 13 behind him . Reuben swam 8 events and achieved personal best in 6 over the course of the wee-end.

There then followed two butterfly medals. Leona Scott came away with a gold in the 100m when the 12 year old  touched in 1:38.00 completely dominating it finishing by a huge margin of 22 seconds.

In a lower age group category, 11 year old Lexie Parker gained bronze in 1:45.85 over the same distance. Lexie took on ten events and achieved a personal best in eight, ironically her medal success was not one of them.

To Warwick Again

The Club travelled again this time to the other side of the county to be apart of the Warwick Thompson Gala at Thetford

Sam Reynolds-Gotts won two medals in his first ever gala. It was no less than gold  in the 50m butterfly when he touched in  54.73 and then took bronze in the 50m freestyle with a 42.71 respectively. The 10 year old had two further fourth places and on all four events he recorded a personal best time.

It was also first time too for 14 year old Amber Clark, who won  medals in all three breaststroke events. In the 200m she came home in 3:34.12  by three one hundredths of a second. In the 100 it was another finger tip finish as she touched the pad another split second ahead of her nearest opponent for double gold  in 1:40.25. However in the 50m she just lost the gold in 45.94  in another exciting close finish.

Milly also had a busy week-end.  The team captain brought home two gold medals and two silvers. Her first gold came in the 100m backstroke scoring 1:30.88 and her second one came in the 200m freestyle when she bossed the event completing eight lengths of the pool in 2:45.85, fifteen seconds ahead of any other rival  Her silvers were in backstroke over a 50m sprint to finish in 44.03 and 100m breaststroke in 1:50.03 respectively.

After a bout of sickness, just prior to the final session  Zerif Gokmen rose to the challenge and won gold.  It came in the 100m Individual Medley in a time of 1:39.64, ironically a split second out side her personal best.

Zerif had to swim 25m on all the strokes and looked particularly strong in the butterfly. However, on the last 25m the 15 year old had it all to do on the freestyle. She looked very determined and  held on to win by one tenth of a second.  Zerif, who has  to make a 36 mile round trip each time she trains at the Victory Pool in North Walsham, was pleasantly surprised as was her coach as he explained:-

“I have to admit that neither of us expected  any medal let alone gold.  In the circumstances I would have been more than happy for her to have simply completed the event, but to win gold was a massive bonus.”

Emma Willimott had a very productive week-end winning three medals. There were two golds to be proud of.  In the 200m freestyle she swam the first 50m fast in 40.79 and after eight lengths  finished in  3:10.69 with five seconds to spare , averaging 0:48 for each 50m.

Her second gold was in the 100m Individual medley, when she had to swim all four strokes, and then came home to win the event easily in 1:46.99  with seven second to spare.

Emma completed her programme with a silver in the 50m backstroke in 48.85. missing the gold by three seconds. At the end of the gala the Viking coach said

“Emma has really improved lately the evidence being that she completed all her medal swims in  personal best times and was one of a number of swimmers who did well.

Lexie Parker had a productive week end winning the 200m Individual Medley in 3:24.35 and then won double gold over the same distance in the Freestyle in with 3:09.70. There was no rest for Lexie as she won two more consolation medals. These came in two breaststroke events the 50m (54.39) for silver and 100m (1:57.56) for bronze respectively. The 11 year old also  achieved in a personal best time in all her events.

Siblings Layla and Finn Callaby won eight medals between them. Finn’s best result was the 200m breaststroke when he captured gold in 4:19.25. The 11 year old went on to win two more silvers in the freestyle with 41.57 over 50m and 200m freestyle touching in 3:29.89 respectively.

The club have formed an alliance with Little Fish Swimming Club in Norwich and a number of them swam under the auspices of the Vikings for the first time and did well.

Elsie Coull, of Thorpe St Andrew,  won a gold and three silvers. In the  50m Freestyle the 13 year old went 33.54. for gold in a personal best time. Switching to the Individual Medley, she completed eight lengths in 3:14.14 when she had to swim all strokes over the 200m achieving a silver medal. Her second silver was the 100m freestyle when she touched in 1:15.57 agonisingly just one tenth of a second outside the gold. However, she swam a personal best and left another eight swimmers behind her.  Her final silver came in the 50m butterfly completing the course in 41.57. again in a personal best time.

County Championships 2025

It only took 22 minutes and 28 seconds for North Norfolk Viking Swimmer Reuben Seaman to swim 30 lengths of the UEA pool at the County Championships for him to take the bronze medal in the 1,500m freestyle. His official time was 22.28.48 and the 13 year old was only 2 minutes outside the gold medal.

Leonna Scott  was amongst a number of successful swimmers who represented the North Norfolk Viking Swimming team when they competed in a “Winter Wipe Out” gala at the UEA Sports park.  The 12 year old took no fewer than  3 golds and 2 silver medals home with her after being on top form.

Scott seemed to  favour backstroke and  In the 100m she took gold in 01:19:02 easily defeating a field of 13 and then followed it up with a victory in the 50m, this time over 50m when she brought it home in 35.85. Scott completed her golden hat trick on the 50m freestyle winning in 30.78. There was also more Viking success in her 100m backstroke when Layla Callaby took the bronze in 1:26.72.

Turning to freestyle and butterfly, her third gold came in 50m for the former in  30:78 and in the latter she took her silver in  36:89 3 over the same distance. She rounded off her programme with another silver over 100m freestyle in  1:11:21

Evie Bates  also had a memorable time with her three golds  and a silver. In the 400m freestyle the 14 year old just missed out on the gold by one second in 5:21.68.

Ironically when she contested the 200m freestyle, she won the gold by one second in 2:34.38   defeating seven in her age group. Evie then demonstrated her adroitness on the 100m butterfly winning in 1:25.99 and then proved how to compete in all the strokes in one race by taking the 100 Individual Medley 1:24:50 to round off what has been an exceptional year for her in the pool.

Imogen Laws swam an impressive 200m butterfly and is set to secure an Eastern Regional Qualifying time, when the qualifying times are officially announced shortly. When ratified she will be the first to achieve the mile stone at the Victory pool in North Walsham. This is because the club championships were  “licenced” for the second year running; meaning that all times were deemed official. The ten year old completed the course in 3:28.81 winning her event by quite a considerable margin and went on to win again in her age group over 200m breaststroke. Imogen covered the eight lengths in a block busting junior tussle to finish in first  place with 3:54.18.

In contrast, there were close finishes. None so close than the 11 year old 50m freestyle when Lexie Parker and Stefanie Smologewski “dead heated” with both hitting the pad simultaneously in 42.50 meaning both swimmers were deemed first under the laws of the sport. New member Amelie Cutting had the second fastest time with 42.91 and was awarded third place in the respective age group in her first club gala..

Sam then hit back when he won the 200m breaststroke in 2:46.63 recording the fastest time over all whilst twin brothers Zak and George Edridge settled for the consolation places respectively.

The club had its fair share of debutants who made their mark. Amber Clarke  was victorious in the 12 years 100m breaststroke when she touched in 1:51.03. This was followed by two second places in the same stroke., In the 50m she finished with 49.58 and  over a longer distance of 200m Amber got her “second second” this time , losing out to Grace Parker as both girls recoded times times of 3:54.72 and 3:42.38 in the same age group respectively.

Evie Bates had a club championships she will not forget in a hurry Evie made it a hat trick of golds in all her freestyle events. In the 50m,(32.88) the 100m and the 200m freestyle There then followed more gold medals success including the 100m butterfly (1:33.03) and the 100m IM (1:22.39) with Zerfi as runner up.

Joe strikes a hat trick of golds at Halloween gala

Joe Willimott. achieved a hat trick of golds for the North Norfolk Vikings Swimming Club at  at a special Halloween junior gala at Dereham.

Joe made no mistakes when he dominated the 100 Individual Medley in his 11 year old age category by an outstanding 23 seconds margin in 1.42.86 and was the second fastest in all age groups combined for this event.  In the 50m butterfly he was second fastest again combined with 50.53 and in the 100m freestyle he scored 1.32.47 to win as fellow Viking. Finn Callaby took silver. Joe’s younger sister Emma, also had success when she took a bronze in the 50m backstroke with 49.59.

It was Finn and Lexie Parker, who earlier in the programme, got Vikings off to an excellent start by winning back to back golds. Finn  in the 50m backstroke on 48.94. and Lexie  in  the 100m butterfly with 1.56.05. The two swimmers went onto win another gold apiece.  Finn over 50m breatsroke  (57.26)  and Lexie in 100m backstroke with 1.41.61 respectively.

Her 9 year old , younger twin sisters were also successful in the 50m breststroke. Only hundredths of a second separated Tessa  getting silver in 1:01.53 from Holly’s bronze. in 1:01.73; both of whom swam personal bests.

There was a silver lining for Leonardo Jones. He took three silvers, two of which came in the freestyle. In the 50m he came home in 41.20 and then in the 100m he improved his personal best by 6 seconds to finish in 1:39.39. His other silver was another 50m this time in breaststroke scoring 1:04.4.

Darcie Lee also improved her 100m freestyle. Although she did not medal she improved her 100m freestyle time by 5 seconds when she finished fifth in 1:51.39 and just missed out on a medal when she finished 4th over 100 Individual medley in 1.51.39 again reducing her time by another 5 seconds.

Isla Haynes, aged 11,  made a good account of herself.  Isla took on 8 challenging events and secured a personal best in 7 races. In the 100m freestyle she went 1:32.45 improving by 4 seconds and then over the same distance in the backstroke she touched in 1:56.65 improving by 8 seconds

11 year old Lucy Fincher, who is coached by Mark Claxton at the Reef, made a positive contribution to the afternoon. Lucy recorded a personal best time in all her events namely the 50m freestyle when she took off 3 second in 45.72 and subsequently she came in the top 8 in all her races.

VIKINGS IN ICENI BATTLE

Emily Morton came away with six gold medals at the gala when the team went to Dereham for the Iceni Gala in September

Her  time of 1:03.12 was  the fastest  time out of 118 competitors when she won the 100m freestyle.  Morton was on form again, when In the 50m freestyle, she, defeated 121 competitors to take her second gold breaking a minute in  29.23 – a split second ahead of fellow Viking Leah Harris who touched in 29.43. Leah had more success when she too came away with a gold in the 100 butterfly in 1.11.70.

Taking on the longer distances,, Emily was pushed all the way again and in an exciting finger tip finish, she hit the pad  in 2:18.5 when the dividing time again went into hundredths of a second over 200m freestyle

Her successes continued with two back to back golds the 100m (1.13) and 200mbackstroke ((02.37) respectively and concluded her programme winning the  50 butterfly (33.65)

In the juniors, Anna Turner also came away with  five  gold medals. The 10 year old swam very fast throughout and recorded a personal best on each outing.  Anna regarded her best swim was the 100m freestyle as she explained.

“I was really nervous to do my first race.  This is because I was up against a few 12 and a 13 year olds. Even though I was in the same race with them I still came first both in my heat and age group. In the race, I had a good start and lead until I touched first in 1:17.33, reducing my time by 5.51 seconds.”

There were other gold medal successes for Vikings. Sam Morton, club captain and Emily’s elder brother, in the 200m butterfly (2:41.0).

George and Zak Edridge  celebrated their 15th birthday over the gala week-end and had further reason to celebrate when they came home with 14 medals between them.

George won two back to back golds. His first success came over 200m freestyle when he came home in 2:20.52 and in the 100m butterfly he struck gold again with a 1:18.33. George had an outstanding gala claiming  five more consolation medals. Significantly his 200m Individual medley when he had to swim all four strokes in which he ably did, finishing in 2:54.51.  He was paired with brother Zak in the 50m breastsrtoke and won silver in 38.26 with Zak on 40.10 for bronze

However, fortunes were reversed in the 200m breaststroke when this time Zak was ahead of his brother in 3:10.64 achieving silver  with  George who scored 3:11.41 for bronze respectively. Zak had did a “double” in the backstroke events too. For the 50 he scored 35.61 claiming silver and over the 100m another  bronze in 1:18.93.

Their younger sister 11 year old Milly did not medal but made a significant improvements.  recorded  5 personal bests times out of 9.  There were two swims of significance which she excelled in. She reduced her time by 14 seconds finishing the 200m freestyle in 2:58.08 and it was freestyle again, this time over 100m when the margin of improvement was 4 seconds with 1:22.74.

Imogen Laws struck gold in the 100m butterfly in 1.30.62  and followed it up with a silver In the 200m Individual medley recording 3.06.53 and a bronze for the 100m freestyle going 1:17.03  respectively. At the conclusion a Viking coach said:

A lead coach is  required. Preferably Level II qualified. He or she will lead a team of experienced coaches and set schedules accordingly . Again the position will be subject to a successful reference and an enhanced DBR check. This is a paid position.

Harry and Imogen strike gold at swim gala.

It was a memorable day for North Norfolk Viking Senior Swimmer 19 year old Harry Hudson competing in the “Mid Summer Madness”at the UEA Sports park Gala.  He recorded the fastest time in the gala over 50m freestyle in 26.38 and subsequently beat 29 competitors in his own age group,  Also competing in the same event were fellow Vikings Lewis Goultry and Ashley Jones who went 27.29 and  27.33 finishing 5th and 6th respectively.

In the intermediate categories, 13 year old Evie Bates enjoyed her outing by achieving two bronze medals. Her first one came in the 200m freestyle in 2:34.64 and the second was over 100m butterfly when she touch in  2:34.64. Toby Corfield was the other Viking medallist when he won silver over 200m backstroke in 3:04.03 Afterwards Viking Coach Adam Crafer said:

Thanks also to Leona Scott, Anna Thurston, Grace Parker, Layla Callaby, Saha Hordinenko, Emily Morton, Niamh Corfield, Bethany Brooks,  Millie, George & Zak Edridge