Over the last month, Max H has again competed for his club, Kingston Royals at the 2020 Surrey County Championships, in the 12 year old category. He came away with a total of 8 medals: 1 Gold and 7 Silvers to make it now a total – this year and last – of 15 County medals to add to his trophy cabinet of 134 career medals (93 Golds, 28 Silvers and 13 Bronzes) in just 150 races.
The highlight of the meeting for Max was retaining his title of 50m Freestyle Champion for the second year running. Having set a new pb and leading time in the heats of 29.31s, going ‘sub 30s’ for the 4th time this season, he went into the final with a confidence boosting gap on the field. Away quickly from the blocks, he took the lead after 10m and the result never really looked in doubt.
With an Olympic standard stroke rate of 125 strokes per minute and hardly breathing down the straight, he pulled away from the field to win comfortably by 0.77s in a new pb of 28.80s, helping three other swimmers to go sub-30 for the first time in their careers. He thus achieved his ‘sub 29s’ goal that he had set himself for these championships in early August last year at The RaceClub in Florida. After the race, Max stated that “at the half-way point I started to smile with my face in the water.”
The swim places Max at No.7 in the UK, only 0.75s from the top spot. His next goal is the next rung up on the swimming ladder, the London Regionals in early May, where he is a strong candidate for gold, currently ranked 2nd, with only 0.15s separating him from the leader. All to swim for!
