19 Nov 2019

Last weekend saw the Performance Squads travel to the Littledown Centre in Bournemouth for the home club's Level 2 Winter Meet. This was the meet towards which the Performance Squads' training had been focused since the summer and was a great opportunity for our swimmers to break their personal bests and strive for qualification times for the Hampshire County Championships.

After many, many hours of tough training over the past few months, the swimmers were well prepared to attack this competition. With an excellent 118 county qualification times from 198 swims, they performed magnificently and got the results their hard work deserved. It was a great atmosphere at the competition and it was good to see the swimmers roaring on their teammates from the poolside. You could really see the difference that support made to the swimmers, particularly in longer distance events.

There are a few swimmers that need a special mention.

Firstly, Ella, who had to overcome the upset and disruption of a faulty start in her 200m breaststroke heat. After help from our Head Coach, Paul, and the referee, Ella was re-admitted into the event alongside much older and faster swimmers in a later heat. She swam amazingly well to smash 18 seconds off her PB, win the gold medal in the 10 years age group and achieve a County qualification time. What a swim!

The next special mentions go to Alana and Phoebe for dominating most events in their age categories, winning 15 medals, including 9 golds, between them. Phoebe also broke her own club record in the 200m backstroke, taking 0.3 seconds off her old record and setting a new mark of 2:45.37. Wonderful swimming from both girls.

Third special mention goes to Fraser for breaking through the 60-second barrier for the first time. He swam his first sub-60 for 100m freestyle with a time of 59.74, a terrific achievement and something he's been edging towards for the last few months. Fraser joins George, Mukund, Frank and Zak in our sub-60 club and we have a few other swimmers close to joining them.

The final special mention goes to the team as a whole for their support, camaraderie, good behaviour and effort over the weekend. The club finished in a commendable 6th place overall out of 21 competing clubs and swimmers from all the Performance Squads did their part by winning points towards our total. A job well done.

Overall, our swimmers achieved:

• 198 Swims
• 108 PBs (55%)
• 118 County Qualifying Times inside the base time
• 40 Medal, consisting of
• 13 Gold
• 6 Silver
• 11 Bronze

Our medalists were:

• Alana: 5 x Gold (50m Breaststroke, 200m Backstroke, 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke), 2 x Silver (50m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke)
• Phoebe: 4 x Gold (200m Backstroke, 100m Backstroke, 100m Freestyle, 400m IM), 2 x Silver (50m Butterfly, 100m Butterfly), 2 x Bronze (50m Breaststroke, 50m Freestyle)
• Freddie: 2 x Gold (50m Butterfly, 100m Butterfly), 2 x Bronze (50m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle)
• Issy: 1 x Gold (100m Freestyle), 2 x Bronze (50m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle)
• Ella: 1 x Gold (200m Breaststroke)
• Nathan: 1 x Silver (100m Butterfly), 1 x Bronze (50m Butterfly)
• Rhyseren: 1 x Silver (1500m Freestyle), 1 x Bronze (400m IM)
• Oliver: 1 x Silver (50m Backstroke)
• Ellena: 2 x Bronze (100m Backstroke, 100m Freestyle)
• Amy: 1 x Bronze (50m Butterfly)

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performance, bournemouth, level 2, medals, county, qualification, meet, report