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Sea Palling Reef and Big South Swims - 15th & 21st August ASA National Swimming Championships at Sheffield - 28th July/1st August Tom Rootsey's Channel swim - 20th July Open Water Events - 18th July Essex Mini League Round 5 at Halstead - 10th July |
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Big South Swim - 21st August The Orca sponsored Big South Swim held at Dorney Lakes, the 2012 Olympic rowing venue, saw great numbers turn out again for the second year runnung. The 1500m event saw Colchester Swimming Club member Dolly Trigg (12) come out off the water 10th out of the 120+ entrants, placing her 2nd in the ladies event and 1st in the under 18s, in a time of 21m 30sec a 52sec personal best for her. Her brother Sonny Trigg (14) swam in the 3.8km swim for the second year, coming 10th out of the 150+ swimmers, 6th in the mens event and 1st in the junior event (u 18's) for the second time in 50m 54 sec, this was 1 minute faster than last year. Sea Palling Reef Swim - 15th August The Sea Palling Reef Swim was a 1-mile sea swim for youths and adults aged 14+ at one of Norfolk's Blue Flag beaches on the 15th August. Despite the very choppy conditions on the day, 58 swimmers rose to the challenge of this first time event. This was nothing if not a very difficult challenge, particularly for those not used to sea swimming. Rising to the challenge the best though were the juniors with the top three places being taken by some excellent performances from the youngsters. Gold medals were awarded to all swimmers that completed the swim in less than 25:00 mins (19 swimmers), Silver medals were awarded to those that completed the swim in times between 25:00 and 30:59 mins (25 swimmers) and bronze medals to those who completed the swim in more than 31mins (14 swimmers). Jarrod Bradfield from Colchester Swimming Club won the gold medal in the male category completing the course in 19:15mins.
ASA National Swimming Championships at Sheffield - 28th July/1st August Colchester Swimming Club fielded their largest number of entries at this years ASA National Swimming Championships. To qualify for this event is a phenomenal achievement and the experience of swimming in a 10 lane 50m pool against the top young swimmers in the country is an invaluable experience. The club is very proud of all the youngsters who competed in this exciting and motivating event. In the National Age Group Championships 13yr old Jarrod Bradfield qualified for 2 events and reached the final in both; swimming on top form to take a superb silver medal in the 100m Freestyle with a personal best (PB) time of 56.41secs and taking 9th position in the final of the 200m Free, fantastic performance from Bradfield. 13yr old Jim Vickers also qualified for 2 events; he swam brilliantly in the heat of the 100m Free just missing the final in 11th place with a good PB. He came 14th overall in the 100m Backstroke again just outside a final position swimming with huge determination. Two 11yr olds qualified for these championships, both swimming strongly against fierce competition; Cameron Simpson in the boys 100 & 200m Breaststroke and Philippa Davenall in the girls 200m Breast.
The Club had a boys relay squad swimming who qualified at this years East Region Championships in June; the team consisted of Jarrod Bradfield, Jim Vickers, Matthew Lemnell, Sonny Trigg and Charlie O'Connor who sadly missed these nationals because of injury. The boys swam on 2 separate days in the 4 x 100m Free and Medley relay heats. They had excellent swims as a team and knocked a huge 6 seconds off their qualifying time in the Medley relay. Ellie Tripp, just 14yrs old as this competition started, qualified for the National Youth Championships for girls 14 and over. She swam a great PB in her 200m Breast heat with a time of 2mins 49.44secs, another fantastic performance.
Tom Rootsey's Channel swim - 20th July Firstly, I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who has supported me and the CUSWPC team in our Channel Swim attempt. The amount of support and sponsorship we have received has astonished us, and we are extremely grateful to all those who contributed to that. We have now done the swim, and a short report of what happened follows. The team of six arrived in Folkestone on Saturday evening, with the first possible day we could swim being Sunday. It was decided with the pilot that Sunday would not be the best day, so we went for a practise swim in Dover harbour to get used to the sea (if in a sheltered environment). On Sunday evening, we spoke to the pilot and it was decided that we would go the next day. Having readied our things and ourselves, it was a big come down when a forecast changed, and we found out at about 9pm that it wasn't going to be Monday after all and we were to phone to find out more at 7pm the next day. When we did, we were hoping to swim on Tuesday. We weren't disappointed, but when we were told to meet the boat in Dover harbour at 2am the next morning, were slightly shocked!! We turned up in a light drizzle and pitch dark having had less than three hours sleep, to find a working fishing boat just pulling up to the dock - the Viking Princess. After loading all our stuff on board we set off, with the Oxford boat following behind, heading to Shakespeare beach, from where the swim would start. As we got closer, I got myself ready as I was going first. I had glow sticks attached to me, and a flashing light put on the back of my head, to make it easier for the people on the boat to keep sight of me in the pitch dark. When we arrived at the beach, I was told to go, so jumped over the side into the blackness and swam off to the beach, followed by a spotlight from our boat. I had to get completely out of the water before we could start our swim to adhere to the regulations set by the Channel Swimming Association. The Oxford guy joined me after some time (they couldn't find a safety pin!?!), and the horn went. The hour of the swim is now a blur in my memory, just trying to stay in the arc of the boats lights, and to swim the straightest possible course. When eventually I saw Emily getting ready on the steps to get into the water behind me and start her hour, I was aching, tired, and battered by the waves, but quite exhilarated. As I sat watching the sunrise, and trying to warm up despite cold ambient temperatures, I could see we had a good lead after the first leg, and Emily held us in the lead before Andy went in for his hour. As we passed through the different shipping lanes throughout the day, we encountered massive commercial container ships, but thanks to the skills of our pilot managed to avoid them with a minimum of fuss. Kat was next and again, started ahead, carrying on a trend that was not to break all day, with us leading the whole way across. Kat was also the first to start encountering jellyfish. Mike was in next, and for the last 20 minutes of his swim, the jellyfish numbers were really building, with Josie having to get in the middle of the biggest swarm yet. Despite this Josie coped well with the jellyfish, extending the lead that had been fluctuating throughout the morning. Thankfully my second stint came with a massive lessening of jellyfish numbers, and I could get on with the business in hand. Our lead stretched out again, and during the second half of the hour, the waves were becoming choppier and quite unpleasant to swim in, and this continued through most of Emily's second hour in the water making it a tough one. Andy got in for his final swim with the knowledge that France was within reach. For a long time it didn't seem to be coming closer, so much so that Kat started getting ready, and even got in the tender ready to go alongside Andy and take over if necessary near the shore where the main boat could not go. Eventually, after 51 minutes in the water, Andy clambered out onto France to great celebration on the boat. The final Oxford swimmer came in 11 minutes behind, meaning that Cambridge lift the trophy for the third time, evening the score with Oxford, at three wins each and 1 draw. Despite aching for days afterwards, and severely lacking sleep, the CUSWPC team are still elated and really pleased to have finished in a good time of 8 hours and 51 minutes, just two minutes outside the fastest Cambridge team ever, despite a very strong tide pushing us miles south to land a long way outside the normal area.
Open Water Events - 18th July Three swimmers from Colchester Swimming Club took part in two different events on Sunday, all with great success. Jarrod Bradfield took part in and won the Clacton Annual Round the Pier Swim. This organised event is a 1200m (1312yd) tide-assisted swim from the east side of Clacton pier to the west side. There were 61 entries and Bradfield performed strongly to finish 30 seconds ahead of the 2nd place competitor despite fast running tides and a jellyfish sting. His finishing time was 16mins 52secs. Sonny and Dolly Trigg competed in the East Region Open Water Championships at Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre in Norwich. Sonny (14) took part in the 5km event clocking a time of 1hr 9mins and 4 secs, taking a silver in the region and a gold in the county both in the 13-16 age category. His sister Dolly (12), the youngest competitor by 1 year, swam in the 1500m event clocking a time of 22mins 22secs placing her 7th in the region and receiving a bronze medal in the county both in the age category of 12-16. The medals were presented by Sheila Mackenzie (ASA East Region President) and Paul Hayes (ASA Essex President).
Essex Mini League Round 5 at Halstead - 10th July Colchester swimming club made it through the Essex Mini League season with an impressive unbeaten record, they now have to wait until October to find out if they have retained their title. The team went to Halstead Leisure Centre on Saturday evening with a positive attitude, the swimmers were aware that the main objective was to accumulate as many points possible, this was to be against some good competition. The other clubs represented were Braintree, Rochford, Witham and Halstead. The evening got off to a winning start with Charlotte McDonnell swimming a Personal Best of 41:99 in the 11yr 50metre backstroke, and then Megan Adamson who has just moved up into 10yr age group swam a PB of 44:59 in the same event. Sarah Bird had a tough race in the 13 yr 100metre freestyle to hold onto second place. Chloe Vincett-Miller had a good win in open 50metre butterfly. Helena Wright swam to victory with a PB of 38.3 in the open 50metre backstroke. Tim Kwok gained a PB swimming up an age group in the 13yr boys 50metre breaststroke to win in a time of 45:22. There were some good PB's turned in by the Colchester swimmers and another one with a first place came from Jack Gallagher in the 13yr 50metre backstroke with a time of 39:32. Another PB, came from Joy Huggins in the 13yr 50metre backstroke, with a time of 40:92 to gain second place. The ever improving Ben Bouckley came second with a time of 39:23 in the 10yr 50metre freestyle, which was also a good PB. Alex Cole swam a great PB of 38:27 in the 11yr 50metre freestyle for another second place, Hannah Vickers also gained a second place in 10yr 50metre butterfly. Lydia Pearmain swam a controlled 50metre butterfly to win the 13yr race. Colchester performed excellently in the relay events, this has been consistent throughout the campaign, and the 9yr girls won the 4 x 25metre breaststroke with a storming leg from Jordan Glynos-Fernie, with Sophie Lo, Rhianna Preece and Ellie Duley making up the rest of the quartet. The boy's team of Kirin Yeung, Joe Gallagher, Sam Mackinder, Sam Watkins, Joe Mackinder and Dan Few swam strongly in the 6 x 25metre butterfly. Joe and Dan swam great legs all evening in the relays to bring the victory's home for the team, with the addition of Chris Kwok and Guy Harrison the four won the open 4 x 2 x 1 freestyle relay and the girls team of Chloe Vincett-Miller, Danielle Hall, Lauren Richardson and Helena Wright won the same event. There were also fine victories for both the boys and girls relay teams in the 13yr 4 x 25metre freestyle, Sarah Bird, Joy Huggins, Charlotte Holt and Lydia Pearmain for the girls and Sam Watkins, Taylor Young, Jack Gallagher and Tim Kwok for the boys with strong first legs coming from Sarah Bird and Sam Watkins. Victories came from both teams in the 6 x 25metre breaststroke, Sophie Lo, Sophie Marven, Charlotte McDonnell, Helena Wright, Lauren Richardson and Danielle Hall for the girls and Rory Bennett, David Turner, Tom Lo, Tim Kwok, Guy Harrison and Dan Few for the boys. Colchester's swimmers have produced some excellent results over this season and are now top of the league. Colchester can only be overtaken by Romford swimming club, who are currently lying in second place with two fixtures remaining, the final one being in October. Round 5 Results: 1 Colchester 167 points, 2 Rochford 145 points, 3 Braintree 139 points, 4 Witham 138 points, 5 Halstead 104 points
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