2015 Scarborough Report 19-21 June

Some of our Scarborough Swimmers............

As the swimming season reaches its final stages for 2014/2015 34 swimmers headed to Scarborough for the ever popular Scarborough Swimming Club A & B Gala 2015 (Short course). While the emphasis was always on competition there was also an emphasis on having fun and on team spirit.

The weekend started on Friday evening with the 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle events and the squad started as they meant to continue with Macy Yoxall, Lewis Baker and Abigail Miles all winning gold medals with other medal winners including Lola Yoxall, Kalum Smart, Lucy Greatorex, Jessica Richardson, Harriet Ostrowski-Jones and Georgia Hamblett. On the first evening we won 4 Gold Medals, 6 Silver Medals and 2 Bronze Medals.

More success followed on Saturday and Sunday.

In the A Grade our swimmers gained 47 medals: 3 Speeding tickets, 16 Gold Medals and 12 Bronze Medals. In the B Grade our swimmers gained 14 Speeding tickets, 17 Gold Medals, 11 Silver Medals and 11 Bronze Medals. In total the swimmers achieved 155 short course PB's - a fantastic effort. Events included 50m and 100m freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly plus 100m IM and 200m IM.

All of the swimmers deserve a special mention:

9 Years Megan Sharp and Daniel Miles.

10 Years Macy Yoxall, Lola Yoxall, Georgia Lee, Freya Waller, Phoebe McNicholas, Maea Hamby, Lucy Hamblett, Lewis Baker, Alex Tikhonov and Miles Tupman.

11 Years Abigail Miles, Isabelle Speed, Lauren Sharp, Anya Yates, Lily Martin and Kalum Smart.

12 Years Lucy Greatorex, Jessica Richardson, Harriet Ostrowski-Jones, Alanna Sidebotton and William Kenny.

13 Years Lucy Hatfield, Elizabeth Safonkina, Millie Hamby, Ella Waller and Nathan Billingham.

14 Years Georgia Hamblett, Megan Lee and Charlotte Savage.

15 Years and over Rebecca Sanderson, Thomas Stather and Lawrence Savage.

In addition Jessica Richardson and Harriet Ostrowski-Jones reached the finals of the Junior A Mixed Skins whilst Isabelle Speed, Alanna Sidebottom and William Kenny reached the finals of the Junior B Mixed Skins where William and his partner from Darlington Swimming Club reached the final round losing out narrowly in a very tense and hard fought finale.

 

News Round Up for May and June 2015 including the ASANER Championships 2015, Dartes Long Course and Short Course Meets, Rotherham Metro and COSSS Level 1 Meets

May and June have been a very busy months for galas with the North East Regional Long Course Championships, the frenetic competition to secure a top 25 time during the qualifying window for the new British Summer Championships and the opportunity for our younger swimmers to gauge their improvement in the Dartes B Grade meet. There have been so many excellent performances and it is not always possible to mention everyone. So to everyone who competed, a big "Well Done!"

ASANER Youth and Senior Championships 2015 (Long Course)

The ASA North East Region 2015 Long Course Youth and Senior Championships were held at Sunderland Aquatic Centre on 9 and 10 May 2015. Three of our swimmers achieved the qualifying times and competed: Holly Milnes in the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly finishing in 34th and 24th places respectively; and sisters Corinne and Alanah Hill who both swam in the 200m butterfly finishing in 30th and 35th places respectively.

Our 2015 ASANER Championship competitors…..

ASANER Age Group Championships 2015 (Long Course)

The ASA North East Region Age Group 50m Championships 2015 were held at Ponds Forge Sheffield on the weekends of 6-7 June and 13-14 June 2015. The Age Group Championships are for swimmers aged 11 to 14 (ages at 31 December 2015) and the 11 and 12 year old swimmers competed as one category.  

Seven swimmers from Borough of Barnsley Swimming Club took part with 31 swims in total reaching 7 finals and achieving 14 PB's.

Greg Lugton (14) competed in 3 events securing 3 PB's and finished 8^th in both the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke finals.  

Abigail Miles (11) competing in the 11-12 year category in 10 events reached 2 finals finishing 5^th in 50m breaststroke and 8^th in 100m breaststroke whilst securing 4 PB's.  

Elizabeth Safonkina (13) competed in 2 events and reached the final of the 100m backstroke finishing 7^th.  

Libby Turner (14) also competed in 10 events and reached 2 finals finishing in 6^th place in 100m breaststroke and in 9^th place in 50m freestyle. Libby also narrowly missed out by finishing 11^th in 400m IM, 50m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke and 100m freestyle.  

Our other non-finalists in the 11/12 category were Jessica Richardson with a PB in 200m butterfly, Sam Charlesworth with PB's in both 50m and 100m breaststroke and Harriet Ostrowski-Jones in 400m IM, 50m backstroke with a PB in 200m breaststroke.

Doncaster DARTES Level May Day Meet (Long Course)

The new Dartes May Day Meet was held at John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds on the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of May 2015. As no coach was able to be present a big "thank you" to the parents who helped on poolside. This gala provided a relatively rare opportunity for our swimmers to take on the 800m freestyle (girls) and 1,500m freestyle (boys). Jessica Richardson, Matthew Selous, Nathan Billingham and Greg Lugton rose to the challenge with Nathan and Greg competing in this event for the first time. Congratulations to everyone for finishing and to Greg for Gold Medal in the 13 year boys age group.

Other top 3 medal winners were Harriet Ostrowski-Jones with Bronze Medal in the 11 year 100m Backstroke and Lewis Baker in the 10 year age group with Gold Medals in 100m Backstroke, 200m IM, 200m Freestyle, 200m Breaststroke and 400m IM; Silver Medals in 50m and 100m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke and 200m Backstroke; and Bronze Medals in 50m Butterfly and 50m Breaststroke.

Medals were also awarded for 4th to 6th places up to the 12 year age groups so congratulations to Lauren and Megan Sharp, Matthew Selous, Jessica Richardson, Harriet Ostrowski-Jones and Lewis Baker and also congratulations to all who achieved a PB or who tried hard but narrowly missed out.

Rotherham Metro Swimming Club Level 1 Meet (Long Course)

The Rotherham Metro Level 1 long course meet was held at Ponds Forge Sheffield on 16th and 17 May 2015.

This meet attracted a very strong field as it fell within the qualifying period for the new British Swimming Summer Championships (for swimmers from the 13/14 age group upwards) and with the qualifying window due to close on 31 May the competition was fierce. In addition competition was also strong for the younger age group swimmers.

11 Swimmers took part including our British Championship swimmers Libby Turner and Tom Speed who were looking to improve their personal best times. Libby gained 1 PB from her 5 swims in the 13 year age group and picked up a Silver Medal in the 200m IM and Bronze Medals in the 100m freestyle and 200m butterfly; and Tom (swimming in the 15 years and over section) gained 2 PB's from his 3 swims. Also swimming in the older age groups and gaining PB's were Lucy Hatfield in the 13 year age group and Alanah and Corinne Hill in the 15 and over age group.

In the younger age groups Lewis Baker was again prolific in the boys 9/10 section winning Gold Medals in 400m IM and 50m breaststroke, Silver Medals in 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle and Bronze Medals in 100m and 200m backstroke and 200m breaststroke as well as gaining 6 PB's.

Other PB's were achieved by Lola Yoxall, Macy Yoxall, Megan Sharp and Phoebe McNicholas in the 9/10 age group. 

City of Sheffield Swim Squad Level 1 No Frills Meet (Long Course)

Libby Turner was again in action at Ponds Forge at the COSSS No Frills meet held on 23 May and 24 May 2015 finishing with Silver Medal and a PB in 400m IM, Silver Medal in 200m IM and also competed in 100m breaststroke and 200m backstroke.

Doncaster DARTES Level 3 B Grade (Short Course)

On 31 May 2015 a relatively young and inexperienced squad made the short journey to Adwick and enjoyed a very successful gala amassing a superb 59 short course PB's from 79 swims in total: a fantastic effort with the club finishing 6th out of the 19 clubs taking part and with two swimmers, Robyn Sykes and Roman Wallace making their competitive debuts.

With trophies for the top girl and top boy swimmer in each age group as well as individual medals Megan Sharp secured the 9 year girl's trophy with Gold Medals in 50m Free, 50m Butterfly and 100m IM together with Speeding Tickets in 50m Backstroke and 50m Breaststroke and 5 PB's from 5 swims; Eleanor Valentine-Bull was 5th overall in the same age group with Silver Medal in the 50m Breaststroke and Bronze Medal in the 50m Backstroke with 3 PB's from 3 swims; in the 10 year and 11 year girls age groups Phoebe Wells, Lucy Bratley, Lucy Gray, Amy Guettat and Holly Northam secured PB's in all of their swims whilst Maea Hamby, Isabelle Speed, Freya Waller, Lucy Redfern and Lauren Sharp all contributed to the PB haul. For the boys Daniel Miles (9) won Bronze Medal in 50m Breaststroke, Kalum Smart (11) won Gold Medal in the 50m Backstroke and together with Roman Wallace (11) the boys secured 10 PB's from 12 swims.

For the older swimmers Rebecca Sanderson won the top girl trophy in the 16 year age group with Gold Medals in the 100m Backstroke and 100m Freestyle and Silver Medals in the 50m Butterfly and 100m IM; Jess Richardson was 2nd overall in the girls 12 year age group with a Speeding Ticket in 50m Breaststroke, Gold Medal in 50m Freestyle, Silver Medal in 100m IM Bronze Medal in 50m Butterfly and 4 PB's from 4 swims; Millie Hamby was 5th overall in the girls 12 year age group with a Speeding Ticket in 50m Backstroke and Bronze Medals in 50m Breaststroke and 50m Freestyle together with 5 PB's from 5 swims; and Tom Speed made a cameo appearance in the 100m IM. 

 

March and April 2015 Round Up including The British Swimming Championships, COSSS Premier Meet, Derventio and Stocksbridge

British Swimming Championships 14 – 18 April 2015

What an amazing time at the British Swimming Championships 2015!

The championships served as qualifiers for the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) for girls born in 2001/2002 and boys in 1999/2000, the European Games (EG) for girls born in 1999/2000 and boys in 1997/1998. For the open age swimmers, they were competing for a place in the FINA World Championships, so all the best in Britain were battling it out for a place on these international meets.

It was a fantastic achievement for Tom and Libby to have qualified for such a prestigious event and just reward for their dedication to training, application, effort and no little talent. It was also a very proud occasion for the club as a whole to have two of our swimmers competing on such a stage.

The splendour of the London Aquatic Centre (the 2012 London Olympic Pool); rubbing shoulders with the current stars of British swimming such as Hannah Miley, Adam Peaty and Fran Halsall; and the performances of Tom Speed and Libby Turner certainly made this both an inspiration and a truly memorable experience for both swimmers and myself.

In case anyone has missed the results:

Libby swam in the 13/14 Age Group (EYOF age group) heats of the 200m IM on the 16^th in a time of 2.30.21 and finished in a position 16th out of 21; and then followed this up with a new PB of 28.81 in the heats of the 50m freestyle on the 17^th finishing 31^st out of 38 competitors.

Tom swam in the 15/16 Age Group (EYOF age group) heats of the Men's 200m Breaststroke on the 14^th setting a new PB in the heats of 2.28.41 and reached the final for his age group (the top 8 qualified) where he finished 7th in a time of 2.29.58.

Swimming again on the 17^th in the heats of the Men's 100m Breaststroke Tom again reached the EYOF final finishing in 5th in a PB of 1.06.98.

Just to add to the memories, in the final of the Men's 100m Breaststroke (just two events after Tom's second final) Adam Peaty rewrote the history books as he set a new World record to  finish in a time of 57.92 - the first man in history to break through the 58 second barrier. All the media, spectators and swimmers went crazy and the atmosphere was electric

Thank you to the Barnsley Chronicle for their coverage both before and after the Championships and on behalf of both swimmers a big "Thank you" also to all supporters for their messages of "Good Luck" and "Congratulations" throughout.

COSSS Premier Meet 27 – 29 March 2015

Double Olympic champion and world record holder Ruta Meilutyte headed the entrants at the Level 1 COSSS Premier Meet and the qualifying times required to enter this event matched the high calibre field.

BOBSC swimmers Abigail Miles, Tom Speed and Greg Lugton took part. All three performed well. Events other than those over 50m were swam in age group whilst 50m events were swam as Open.

Abigail competed in 50m fly (with a PB) and 50m breaststroke in the Open events and in the 100m breaststroke (with another PB and 2^nd place), 200m breaststroke (sixth place) and 200m IM (seventh place) in the 11 and under events.

Greg competed in the 50m backstroke (with a PB).

Tom competed in the 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly in the Open events and in the 100mbreaststroke and 200m breaststroke in the 15 and over category in this warm up ahead on the British Championships.

Derventio eXcel 9th Long Course Open Meet 2015 11 – 12 April 2015

Six of our swimmers took part in the Level 1 Derventio Open Meet with age groups based on age at 31^st December 2015.

Alex Tikhonov (in the 10 year age group) swam impressively and took full advantage of the small number of swimmers in his age group to record top 3 finishes in all nine of his events which included 7 PB's, 3^rd place in the Top Boy list, Gold Medals in 100m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and 200m IM, Silver Medals in the 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 50m butterfly and Bronze Medals in the 50m and 200m backstroke.

Lewis Baker (in the 11 year age group) secured 4 PB's and a Bronze Medal in the 100m breaststroke and Greg Lugton (in the 14 year age group) swam a PB in the 200m freestyle.

For the girls Abigail Miles (in the 11 year age group) won Gold Medals in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, Silver Medals in the50m backstroke and 200m IM and Bronze Medals in the 200m backstroke and 400m IM together with 5 PB's from 11 swims and 4^th place in the Top Girl list.

Harriet Ostrowski-Jones (in the 12 year age group) achieved 4 PB's from 7 swims and Elizabeth Safonkina (in the 13 year age group) achieved 5 PB's from 8 swims.

Stocksbridge Pentaqua Level 3 Spring Open Meet 25 April 2015

A total of 44 swimmers from Borough of Barnsley Swimming Club took part in the Stocksbridge Pentaqua Level 3 Spring Open Meet at Ponds Forge Sheffield on Saturday 25 April 2015 competing against swimmers from 23 other clubs and securing 44 medals, 3 speeding tickets, a hatful of Personal Best times (with a number of swimmers achieving personal best times in all of their swims), and the trophy for the overall "Top Boy" swimmer being awarded to our very own Lewis Baker.

Swimming in the 10 year age group Lewis competed in a maximum of nine events winning Gold Medals in the 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 200m IM together with Silver Medals in 50m and 100m butterfly and 100m breaststroke.

Also winning medals for the boys were Alex Tikhonov (also 10) with a Gold Medal in the 100m breaststroke, Silver Medal in the 50m breaststroke and Bronze Medals in the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m IM; Greg Lugton (13) with Gold Medals in 50m and 100m butterfly and Silver Medals in 50m and 100m freestyle; and Nathan Billingham with a Bronze Medal in the 100m backstroke.

Other boys taking part were 10 Years: Myles Tupman and Jonathon Wightman; 11 Years: Sam Charlesworth and Kalum Smart; and at 15 Years and over: Thomas Stather and Elliot Robinson.

In the girls 9 year age group Georgia Lee won Gold Medal in the 50m breaststroke; Macy Yoxall won Gold Medal in 50m freestyle and Silver Medal in the 50m backstroke; and Lola Yoxall won Silver Medal in the 50m freestyle to make it a family one and two and a Bronze Medal in the 50m backstroke.

Abigail Miles (10) swimming in only freestyle and butterfly events swam faster than the cut off times and was awarded Speeding Tickets in both butterfly events and in the 50m freestyle whilst also winning Gold Medal in the 100m freestyle. Also in the 10 year age group Phoebe McNicholas won Silver Medals in 50m breaststroke and 100m butterfly.

Other girl medal winners included Harriet Ostrowski-Jones (11) with Gold Medal in 100m breaststroke, Silver Medals in 50m breaststroke and 100m backstroke and Bronze Medal in 200m IM; Elizabeth Safonkina (13) with Gold Medals in 50m breaststroke and 100m backstroke, Silver Medal in 50m backstroke and Bronze Medals in 50m freestyle and 200m IM; Georgia Hamblett (14) with Silver Medals in 100m freestyle and 200m IM and Bronze Medals in 50m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 100m butterfly; and Holly Milnes in the 15 and over age group winning Bronze Medals in the 50m butterfly, 100m freestyle and 200m IM.

Other girls taking part were 9 Years: Megan Sharp and Eleanor Valentine-Bull; 10 Years Lucy Hamblett, Maea Hamby, Lucy Redfern, Isabelle Speed and Freya Waller; 11 Years: Lucy Bratley, Lucy Gray, Lily Martin, Holly Northam, Lauren Sharp and Neve Wilkie; 12 Years Megan Firth, Lucy Greatorex, Evie Gregory, Millie Hamby, Jessica Richardson, Alanna Sidebottom and Emily Yeates; 13 Years Georgia Clarke and Lucy Hatfield; 15 Years and over Alanah Hill, Corinne Hill and Emma Smith.

2015 Yorkshire Swimming Association Age Group / Open Championships Gala 4

The 2015 Yorkshire Swimming Association Age Group / Open Championships reached their finale with gala 4 held at The John Charles Centre for Sports Leeds on 21^st and 22^nd February.

The 9-10 year events and those of 400m and above for older swimmers were again decided on a "Heat Declared Winner" basis with 100m and 200m events for swimmers aged 11 and above being held in heats with the top 10 swimming off in finals.

After a hectic four weeks of competition Borough of Barnsley swimmers again had a very successful weekend with 4 medals, 14 other top ten finishes and 23 long course PB's.

Abigail Miles and Lewis Baker were again our medal winners with Abigail striking double Gold Medals in the 10 years girls 200m IM and 200m breaststroke (her favourite event) and Lewis winning double Silver Medals in the 10 years boys 200m freestyle and 200m breaststroke whilst also finishing 5^th in the 200m backstroke. A fantastic effort from them both with 5 PB's from 5 swims.

There were more heroics In the 9 year girls age group where Georgia Lee secured a top ten finish with 6^th place in 200m breaststroke whilst also competing in the younger age groups were Macy Yoxall who finished 11^th in the 9 year girls 200m IM and Phoebe McNicholas who just missed out on a top ten finish with 12^th place in the 10 year girls 200m breaststroke.

In the older age groups Libby Turner was consistency personified reaching the finals in all her 100m and 200m events and finishing 5^th in both 100m and 200m butterfly, 6^th in 200m breaststroke, 8^th in 200m freestyle and 9^th in 100m breaststroke.

Also reaching finals were Tom Speed in the boys 15-16 age group with 8^th place in the 200m IM and 10^th place in the 100m backstroke; Harriet Ostrowski-Jones in the girls 11 year age group 100m and 200m breaststroke finishing in 8^th and 5^th places respectively; and Corinne Hill in the girls 14-15 year 200m butterfly finishing in 9^th place.

Tom Speed and Harriet Ostrowski-Jones also claimed top ten finishes in their 400m IM events where Tom finished in 9^th place and Harriet in 5^th place.

In other swims Sam Charlesworth in the 11 year boys age group finished in 14^th place in the 200m breaststroke; Greg Lugton in the 13 year boys age group narrowly missed the finals finishing in 12^th place in the 100m backstroke, 13^th place in the 100m freestyle and 15^th place in 200m backstroke (and achieved PB's in all his events throughout the four weeks of competition); Tom Speed finished 22^nd in the 100m freestyle (the first time he has broken the 1 minute barrier in this event at a long course meet); Harriet Ostrowski-Jones finished 19^th in 200m freestyle; Elizabeth Safonkina in the girls 12 year age group finished in 14^th place in the 100m butterfly, 15^th place in 100m breaststroke, 18^th place in 200m breaststroke and in 27^th place in 200m freestyle; Jessica Richardson also in the girls 12 year age group finished in 13^th place in 200m butterfly; Corinne Hill finished in 19^th places in both the 100m butterfly and 400m IM; and Alanah Hill in the girls 14-15 year age group finished 23^rd in the 400m IM and 29^th in the 100m butterfly.

On a personal note I'm very proud of the achievements of all the swimmers over the last four weeks of competition whether these be securing qualification in the first place, achieving PB's, achieving a top ten finish and of course winning a medal

On behalf of the swimmers I'd like to say "a big thank you" to all the volunteers who have helped out at poolside throughout the championships and to all those who have helped to ensure that our routine training sessions have run smoothly. A "big thank you" also to all of our supporters during the championships.

 

Go BOBSC!

Carly Herbert

Head Coach