Well done to all those swimmers that took part in the County Time Trials and to those that gained qualifying times! A big thank you to Jo Proffitt for organising and to all those who helped out on the day! Results HERE
While everyone else was out doing their last bits of Christmas shopping, two West Suffolk swimmers travelled up to Sheffield for the ASA British Winter Short Course National Championships, which were held at the Ponds Forge International pool.
Having achieved the junior qualification times in the months leading up to the event, Myles Turner was competing in the grueling 1500m Freestyle event, with Jake Thomas-Mansfield having qualified for both the 100m Individual Medley event and the 200m Butterfly.
First up was Jake, competing in the 100 IM event where he swam nearly a second under his pb (personal best) and entry time, having only achieved that a month earlier. Jake was off to a strong start on his butterfly and backstroke legs, before losing some ground on his least favoured breastroke leg, before finishing strongly on the freestyle, finishing in a time of 1:02.58.
Jake was back in action a little over 30 minutes later, competing in the 200m Butterfly. Only having set a new best time at the Club Championships 3 weeks earlier, Jake continued to show improvements, taking over a second and a half off of his pb time, finishing in a time of 2:12.02. This is a relatively new event for Jake, with him only having swum it a handful of times this year.
The 1500m distance events were scheduled for the middle of the day and Myles was in action following some time out of the pool in November with an injury. Myles got out to a strong start, leading his heat down the first 500m. At around the 800m mark, Myles started to pull away from his fellow competitors and held on to that lead through to the finish, where he was just outside of his personal best time achieved in November at the Winter Regional Short Course Championships.
Following the Christmas break, the swimmers will be back in action in Sheffield in the middle of January at the City of Derby meet, before the Suffolk County Championships get underway in February.
The Winter Regional Championships saw 24 swimmers travelling to Luton for a long weekend of racing.
With the changes to the British Swimming Competition structure, the Winter Regional Championships were held at the start of November, with the target meet for December seeing the Winter Short Course Nationals reintroduced, which will be held in Sheffield the week before Christmas.
West Suffolk had 24 swimmers qualify for this Regional Championships which was held over 3 days at the Inspire Sports Village in Luton. It was an open age group competition, so there were no individual age group finals, with only the top 8 qualifiers from the heats going through to the evenings finals session.
The weekend got off to a great start, with Myles Turner, the sole swimmer competing in the Men’s 1500m Freestyle event. Having not swum this event since May, it was a great opportunity to see where Myles was at in his training 2 months after the summer break. Myles started strongly and held his race plan together well, knocking 22 seconds off his entry time and in the process, gaining his first Winter Nationals qualifying time.
On day two, the morning heats saw the fastest WSSC swimmer in the Men’s 200 IM event going to Jake-Thomas Mansfield who finished inside his entry time with a 2:17.93. Birthday boy Thomas Buckle, also finished inside his entry time with a time of 2:23.25. In the Women’s 50m Backstroke, Molly Ollington was the top swimmer for West Suffolk with a time of 31.01 finishing in 16th place, closely followed by Lana Mo on 31.18. Jake was back in action as the fastest WSSC 50m Freestyle swimmer, picking up a new best time of 25.58. In the grueling 200m Butterfly event, Alex Proffitt swam a comfortable heat swim to qualify second fastest into the final. Jake Thomas-Mansfield was back in action yet again, taking nearly 6 seconds off his entry time and joining Myles Turner with a British Winter National short course qualifying time to his name. Jake had a solid swim to finish in a time of 2:14.12. Lana Mo missed out on the 100m Breastroke final by 1 place, finishing in 9th, while in the Men’s 100m Breastroke, Ed Briars knocked over a second off his time to swim sub 1:10 for the first time coming in at 1:09.85.
In the second session of the day, Alex Proffitt finished the Men’s 200 Freestyle in a 1:58.89, with Jake-Thomas Mansfield joining the sub-2 minute club for the first time with a 1:59.92 effort. Beth Sampher was the fastest WSSC 50m Butterfly swimmer on the day, with a sub 30 second effort seeing her finish in 14th position.
In the finals session on day two, Alex Proffitt swam a new best time in the Men’s 200m Butterfly, finishing with a bronze medal to his name and only a quarter of a second behind the silver medal winner. It was a bittersweet swim, with his time just 0.9seconds away from the Men’s British Winter Nationals qualifying time, but nonetheless a great improvement from Alex.
On the final day of the competition, the swimmers were back in action for another tough day of racing. Lana Mo picked up a new best time in the Women’s 200 IM event, finishing in 10th place and just off making the final. Jake-Thomas Mansfield continued to improve on his entry times with a half second improvement in his 50m Backstroke event swimming 29.31. It was a close race in the Women’s 50m Freestyle between West Suffolk team-mates Molly Ollington and Lana Mo, finishing in 16th and 17th positions respectively in 27.43 and 27.47. Ed Briars was back in action in the Men’s 200m Breastroke, finishing inside his entry time with a 2:33. 25 swim. Olivia Nicolai was 5 seconds inside her 200m Breastroke time with a strong swim, finishing in 2:49.63. The illusive sub-minute swim still haunted Jake-Thomas Mansfield and Alex Proffitt who both finished just outside breaking that time barrier with 1:00.27 and 1:00.53 respecitvely. Beth Mottram was the top WSSC swimmer in the 100m Butterfly, finishing in 13th place in 1:07.42, closely followed by Molly Ollington in 1:07.91 in 17th.
The penultimate session of the weekend saw Lana Mo as the top WSSC swimmer in the 100m Backstroke event, finishing in a time of 1:06.86. In the Men’s 100m Freestyle, jake Thomas-Mansfield improved on his entry time, edging closer to a 54 second swim, with a 55.33 effort. Lana Mo again just missed out on a final place, with the a joint 10th place swim in the 50m Breastroke. Close behind in 14th place was Angharad Evans, just outside her pb time, with Hannah McNaul finishing in 20th position.
Also competing over the weekend were Beth Edwards, Annabel Heywood, Eleanor Llewellyn, Chloe Long, Freya Wright, Niamh Perry, Oliver Pyle, Ben Wilkinson and Alexander Harrison. Well done to all swimmers who qualified for the event.
The British Winter Nationals will take place in Sheffield from Thursday 17th – Sun 20th December. Good luck Myles Turner and Jake-Thomas Mansfield who have qualified for the event.
Plans were scuppered this morning with our Open Water swim and Halloween Zumba class cancelled due to the weather.
This was the first rain that we have experienced all week, and accompanied by a strong wind, the camp hoodies came out of the cases early .... besides Ciaran, who has had his on all week!
Our pool session was altered to prevent frost bite, with swimmers doing an extended land warm up, followed by a 100m 'cold' swim of their choice, timed in waves. We finished the session with an 800m cool down on mixed strokes, with plenty of photo opportunies at the end.
This has been a hugely successful camp, with all swimmers acquitting themselves well, both in and out of the water.
2015 Camp Awards go to:
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Best Tan: Beth Mottram (there will be tears when she has to sever her relationship with her sunbed)
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Best Banter: Angus 'The Mouth' Robins
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Swimmer of the Camp: Jake Thomas-Mansfield - embraced everything that the camp had to offer and put in a consistent week of high level training
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Bottomless Pit: William Harpur-Davies (first in the dining hall guaranteed for every meal, with non stop eating at breakfast, lunch and dinner!)
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Best Advert for Sun Block: Edward Briars - Casper won't need his sheet for Halloween this year!
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Most Active: Myles Turner - Besides the swimming and running, was to be found taking part in all the activities on offer during the week.
Dan and Deb signing off ... See you at Gatwick!
After a 45 minute delay in London and a 4 hour flight, the WSSC troupe landed in Arrecife at 7:45pm.
Our transfer driver was waiting patiently, displaying a WSSC sign, but unfortunately, we had to wait for a team from Ireland to collect their baggage, before we made the short journey to Club La Santa.
Despite it being dark, the temperature was still 23'C, so Camp hoodies were being worn as capes. After checking in, came the search for our rooms as Club La Santa can only be described as a maze.
Being too late for our evening meal, the resort issued all swimmers with a dinner pack, including water.
As with the UK on the 24th October, clocks went back 1 hour, allowing everyone an extra hours sleep.
The third and final round of the 2015 Arena League competition was held at Bury Leisure Centre in the run up to Christmas.
With West Norfolk SC due to host – but with no available facility to use, WSSC stepped in and offered to host the round at Bury.
There were 6 teams competing in gala 2 of the Premier Division, with Louth SC in Lane 1, Deepings SC in lane 2, West Suffolk in lane 3, Notts Leander in lane 4, Sherwood Colliery SC in lane 5 and West Norfolk in lane 6.
West Suffolk got off to a strong start with a second placed swim in the ladies open 200 IM event from Molly Ollington. It wasn’t long for West Suffolk to wait for their first victory of the evening, with the girls 9/11yr old Freestyle relay (Lucy Hudson, Cerys Williams, Jessica McNaul and Charlotte White) dominating event 3.
There were a further 20 victories from 50 events on the night. Victories came from: girls 13/u Medley relay (Niamh Perry, Freya Wright, Scarlett Guy, Angharad Evans); boys 13/u Medley relay (Jack Bowyer, Ciaran Riches, William Harpur-Davies, Sam Bullingham); girls 15/u Freestyle relay (Beth Edwards, Hannah Brecknell, Ellie Llewellyn, Hannah McNaul), boys 15/u Freestyle relay (Jake Thomas-Mansfield, Evan Thomas-Mansfield, Oliver Pyle, Myles Turner); ladies open Medley relay (Molly Ollington, Beth Mottram, Beth Sampher, Beth Edwards); Angharad Evans (13/u 100m Breastroke & 100m Freestyle); Myles Turner (15/u 100m Backstroke); Beth Mottram (ladies open 100m Butterfly); Jack Bowyer (boys 13/u 100m Backstroke & 100m Butterfly); Jake Thomas-Mansfield (boys 15/u 100m Butterfly & 100m Freestyle); Niamh Perry (girls 13/u 100m Butterfly); Beth Edwards (girls 15/u 100m Freestyle); Ciaran Riches (13/u 100m Freestyle); Molly Ollington (ladies Open 100m Freestyle); girls 13/u Freestyle relay (Freya Wright, Angharad Evans, Niamh Perry, Scarlett Guy); boys 13/u Freestyle relay (Ciaran Riches, Jack Bowyer, William Harpur-Davies, Logan Pyle) and the boys 15/u Medley relay (Myles Turner, Ollie Pyle, Jake Thomas-Mansfield, Evan Thomas-Mansfield).
There were also a further 11 2nd placed swims and 9 3rd placed swims from the West Suffolk swimmers on the night, in what was a great team event for the swimmers.
Other team members on the night were Alex Proffitt, Ben Wilkinson, Charlie Eshelby, Edward Briars in the open age group category and George King, Robbie Brindley, James O’Connor, Tobin Sari in the boys 11/under age group.
Final results were:
1st West Suffolk – 241 pts
2nd Nottingham Leander – 180 pts
3rd Sherwood Colliery – 170 pts
4th West Norfolk – 167 pts
5th Deepings – 158 pts
6th Louth – 133 pts
Well done to all those swimmers that competed.
On the first full day camp, it was a 'lay in' by usual standards.
Alarms were set for 7:15am, meeting for breakfast at 7:45am. We had been allocated large tables in the buffet style restaruant, thus allowing the whole team to sit together during meal times. After a healthy breakfast of fruit, yoghurt, cereal ... plus afew cooked breakfasts and pastries!!! (nutrition talk planned!), we then prepared for our first pool session.
Two 50m 8 lane pools side by side, made a pleasing site on this warm morning, a perfect setting for the kick set that was about to wake up the wary travelled legs. With only one session today, to ease the swimmers in gently, we made sure that they were setting the standard for their swimming for the rest of the week ahead.
With logbooks completed, along with the distribution of some very nice Club La Santa goody bags, we made our way back to the dining hall to refill hungry mouths, ready for a fun filled afternoon of windsurfing, kayaking, body-boarding and canoeing - along with being entertained by our swimmers showing off their skills from a 1m springboard: - Gold medal going to Logan Pyle, Silver to William Tozer and Bronze to Freya Wright for their skills.
Following dinner it will be an early bed time, in preparation for a 7am session in the morning.
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It was still dark this morning when we made our way to the pool.
However, within minutes, the sun rose and with all the swimmers arriving earlier than the specified time (how often does that happen!?), we completed the 4/5k of aerobic swimming with time to spare.
Breakfast followed, with Ed Briars just topping up on his pre-training snack of toast and jam with a hearty full-English.
The grass football pitch had been booked for todays activity, although this only appealed to the boys, with the girls opting for a poolside sunbed and / or more fun on the paddle boards. Surprisingly, there were no takers for the 12 noon Yoga class.
Time has been set aside today for school work both this afternoon and evening, sandwiching the second pool session of the day, consisting of a series of best effort swims.
This morning was a split breakfast with only the Performance squad swimmers training a double on this fine Tuesday.
A few additional swimmers were invited down for the second hour for the purpose of filming their swimming. Something that we hope to do more of during the week.
Following the daily meeting, it was time to make our way over to the basketball court. However, only a couple of swimmers were interested, with others playing beach volleyball or swim in the free form pool! The spring board remains the number 1 attraction, along with the sunbeds.
Everyone was back in the training pool this afternoon from 3:00 - 5:00pm, followed by a shower and school work prior to a 6:30pm dinner time.
This evening Alan Bircher - Open Water World Silver Medalist (2004) and ex-WSSC swimmer and coach - spoke to our swimmers about the dedication required to enable them to reach their full potential in the sport.
Back to an early start this morning, with 8 of our 14&under swimmers opting to get out of the training session early, to join in with an organised 5k run outside the complex.
A late breakfast followed, with swimmers then having a choice of Aqua Zumba, Yoga, Tennis or Football to fill the morning, although some decided to catch up on sleep - whether on a sunbed, or back in their own rooms.
All swimmers were given a choice as to whether to attend the afternoon training session. After talking last night about the mental strength and commitment required to reach full sporting potential, it was interesting to see which swimmers decided to attend - especially as rumours were rife that it was going to be a 'killer' set (not true).
The afternoon came to a close with a team photo taken by Club La Santa's residentail photographer and then a track run for the 15yrs & overs and any other swimmers that wished to join in.
The day started with the swimmers joining in with a 15minute loosening session around the leisure pool.
This was accompanied by music and many other La Santa guests. Everyone was then set up for a walk across to the pool, where the whole team completed a 'best effort' set.
Just one pool session today, so there was an option for Yoga before lunch, with the afternoon being spent kayaking, canoeing and paddle boarding from the surf shack, as well as doing school work and having fun around the leisure pool.
This centre is a haven for sports lovers, with each visitor being given a token, which allows them to borrow equipment and experience a huge selection of sports along with accessing a variety of group classes - as and when they choose.
