After a thrilling and noisy swim event at the Unique swimming pool at Bradford university, the Huddersfield team were triumphant over winners of the last two years Bradford.
Going into the final two relays Huddersfield were behind by 1 point, needing a victory from both relays to take the win. The first relay started off strong with Matthew Whelan, Sheins Saijan, and Joe Weston setting the pace for Omar Abdelatty to bring the victory on the final leg which levelled the score.
All eyes were on the last men’s relay as it all came down to the final race of the afternoon. Club president Weston set a blistering pace in the first leg, Matthew Robson came in at second with a strong leg but there was still work left to do for George Brickland on leg three, he pulled away from his Bradford competitor which left Abdelatty free reign on the last leg to win the relay and secure victory for the men and take the title from last year’s winners Bradford.
The men won 5 – 6 overall and Weston credits every player in the team saying that everyone swam amazing and put in 100%. He continued to say that unlike last year when Bradford won quite convincingly, his personal highlight was just how close the competition was this year, and it went right down to the wire.
The atmosphere around the pool was electric for both sides all day, especially during the relays. The biggest cheer of the meet however was in the men’s 100m breaststroke late in the day on race 15, when Saijan came from 10 metres behind to claim a much-needed victory to close the gap on Bradford.
The women’s swim team found themselves on the back of a 7 – 4 defeat to Bradford despite a gritty and determined performance. Speaking after the event, women’s captain Millie Hamby credits her team on a vastly improved performance from last year saying, “We really outdid ourselves this year, the progress that they have all made has been really good.”
Hamby herself got swept away in the excitement of the men’s relays saying that the men’s relay was one of her personal highlights and credits the team for really getting into the team spirit and cheering the men to victory despite a loss themselves.