Sammy Ace lived up to her name when she won five of the nine golds picked up by Borough of Southend swimmers at the Harlow Open.

She collected her victories in the 11 years age group in three 100m events - backstroke (1m.20.83), butterfly (1.22.42) and individual medley (1.22.87) - and two in 200m races (freestyle 2.32.2) and individual medley (2.51.01).

Apart from a bronze in the 100 breaststroke (1.46.85), Sammy also had two fourth and one ninth placings.

For the boys, Jonathan Sayer led the way with two 10 year age group golds - in the 200 freestyle (1m.40.32s) and individual medley (3.2.54).

He also collected a silver in the 100 breaststroke (1.36.08), plus a bronze in each of the 50m backstroke (42.45s) and 100m individual medley (1.26.11).

Felicity Isaac, in the 13 year age group, had a great gala and won two golds. They both came in freestyle with the 400 arriving in 4.52.60 and the 200 in 2.22.06. On top of these fine feats she was sixth in the 100 freestyle and had personal bests in the 100 medley (1.21.50) and 100 backstroke (1.22.18).

Joanne Pearl, in the 15 years age group, swam close to a personal best in taking the 200m freestyle bronze in 1.28.10. She went on to finish fifth in the 400 freestyle and 4th in the 100 butterfly (in a personal best of 2.20.12). She also had best ever times in 100 backstroke (1.25.62) and breaststroke (1.34.18).

Ever-improving Gareth Hand posted no fewer than five personal bests with sixth places in 50m butterfly (32.45) and 100m butterfly (1.10.36) being his top results.

It was a similar story for Rebekah Sayer. She was sixth in the 200 freestyle with a new best of 2.34.16 and took a huge slice off her previous best in 400 freestyle (5.19). She went on to record three other personal bests.

Tim Ford took sixth in the 100 fly (1.33.29) in a new best time and achieved a similar feat in the 400 freestyle (5.35.2). Amy Judd, swimming in her first open meet, had a hat-trick of new bests in 100 and 50 breaststroke and 100 freestyle.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.