Last weekend in a picturesque snow laden suburb of Luxembourg city, a 23 strong performance squad from East London and Essex team participated under the Ortus Londinium racing wrapper, in the 2010 LEN Euro meet held at the stunning and superb sporting and culture facilities in the Coque complex. Racing against 83 clubs and 14 swimming federations including Germany, Ukraine, Greece, Belarus, South Africa to mention a few.

The squad was selected based on making the top 17 national rankings in their event and living and training in East London and Essex. Formed in 2008, The Ortus Londinium squad regularly train throughout the county of Essex, and compete together as a performance unit.

In Luxembourg the 23 shared the same water and heat sheets as many current world class and Olympic medallists from Beijing and the recent Rome world championships. Swimmers such as the current 100m freestyle French Olympic champion and former world record holder Alain Bernard, Coralie Balmy (fra) American backstroker Randal Bal and the German world short champion Stefan Diebler amongst several other world class athletes.

Kicking off with the distance, 400 IM, and 200 fly events the Londonium racers left little time to make a mark in the venue by taking 7 podiums which included 2 golds 2 silvers and 3 bronzes. The highlight being 14 year old Elena Sheridan who took Gold in the junior category then went on to make the open A final taking the bronze in a British qualifying time of 2.20. and prize money of 100 euros for achievements. Other medalists were Harry Payne Gold in the 1500m and Charlie Dentith silver in the 400IM.

The next day back in the pool saw team captains Allen Lindenburg and Verity Goodey set examples to the rest of the squad by qualifying in the evening's A finals in the men's 200 free and women's 50 fly respectively. Allen who went into the final 2nd fastest scalping many Bejing participants in doing so in an inspired 1.52 narrowly missing out on his pb from last season. Eastender Elliot Hill and Sean Houlihan also stepped up onto the podium in the 400 free and the medley.

By now the Londinium team were in fine voice from the stands. Team spirit was running with the adrenaline, as the third lung of the team inspired each other along. Further successes came on day 3 with 8 swimmers making evening finals which concluded with Allen Lindenburg sharing the same water as Alain Bernard who took the sprint title. Top team was decided on the highest scoring 30 final point swims. Scoring just under 20000 Ortus Londinium slotted in 11th splitting some national federations which was a great achievement.

Main sponsor of the performance team, Russ Kitching of Frutina Ltd quoted "Its great to support initiatives like this where all coaches of all Essex work together for the benefit of the swimmers, giving them the opportunity to compete and rub shoulders with high level swimmers on a European circuit. We hope it has broaden their minds and added to their swimming CVs to further maximise their potential in their careers."

The squad returned to their home clubs inspired by their International experience working towards the next planned Ortus Londinium event.

The full squad participating were,

Allen Lindenburg(Waltham Forest), Nicholas Osman (Waltham Forest), Chris Inch (Redbridge), Elliot Hill(Waltham Forest), Alex Keating (Waltham Forest),Lewis Clifford Stephenson (Killer whales), Alex Delicata,(Thurrock), Dean SmithRedbridge), Dan Sorrel(Chelmsford), Sean Houlihan (Romford), Charlie Dentith (Redbridge), Jame Davis (Romford), Harry Payne (Thurrock), Ben Hollis(Redbridge), Poppy Hill (Waltham Forest), Sophie Drake (Canvey Island), Elizabeth Hare (Waltham Forest), Verity Goodey (Southend), Kalai Andrews (Killerwhales), Stephanie Malcom (Waltham Forest), and Elena Sheridan (Romford).

Coaches Mike Bush (Waltham Forest) Gary Rogers (Romford) and Louise Walton (Havering)

01.02.2010