Wednesday 21 November 2012

Blog 1434: County Long Course Competition


Another fantastic meet for Long Eaton swimming club at Sheffield this weekend. With many of our DX swimmers missing we still managed to finish in 2nd place in the medals table thanks to some great performance by not only the DX swimmers that had entered but the swimmers training at our home program. Once again this proves how well our relationship with DX is working and how well the home program is doing, producing up and coming swimmers for the future in its development and J squads along with, an exciting youth and senior program creating Midland and National qualifiers in its own right. This is starting to provide great strength in depth within the club. I was extremely pleased with those swimmers competing not only for the first time long course but for the first time in a meet involving other clubs. The excitement and enthusiasm was brilliant and the desire to compete again and progress through our squad structure to reach the heights of swimmers like Kevin Wallbank, Elle Pryce, Matt Cross and Krissy Tomlinson was music to my ears. Please keep this wave of improvement and enthusiasm going and continue to enter meets like our level 3 meet so you can get as many times on the British rankings as possible and qualify for level 1 meets. When I first took over the very first meet I covered was a level 1 meet, we had 1 swimmer enter, at City Of Derby Level 1 meet in January next year we have 19 entered and a few red faces from my squad who qualified but didnt get their entries in on time. In just over 2 years to go from 1 to 19 is a massive improvement and is down to the outstanding qualified and experienced coaching staff we have.




The photograph is of Kevin receiving SEVEN County Record Certificates from Association President, Margaret Roberts.

Blog 1433: Arena round 3

Both teams lie in 12th place in their leagues going into the final round, so we need everyone available to swim to get the strongest teams out. As per last round I have put the same squad list up at West Park so please tick off by Monday the 3rd December or email me to tick you off for you. The A team are at Hucknall and the B team are at Mansfield so there are no buses. If selected to swim from the squad please arrive in plenty of time so we can make sure everyone is there.

Saturday 17 November 2012

Blog 1430: Congratulations, and an Honour for the Club.

Congratulations to Helen Akers on her appointment to the FINA List of World Referees.
Three Referees are recommended every two years from Britain, and Helen has been appointed as one of the three to serve for the next four years.

Helen qualified as a Referee in 2001 and at that time she was the youngest Referee in the Country.
She can be seen on poolside officiating at Club, County, District, National and International events, and most recently, at the Olympic Trials. Next week she travels to Chartre in France, to officiate at the European Junior short course.

Helen still finds time to train and compete in Masters' events as well as being the Club Treasurer, a Mum and works!

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Blog 1423:What a weekend

I don't mind admitting that was a long weekend and I'm only just recovering from it, 16 hours work on both Saturday and Sunday straight into morning training on Monday, but it was worth it. I know I'm not alone in doing those hours and would like to thank everyone who volunteered their services over the weekend, without your hard work it would not of been possible.

The weekend started with Arena League and what a performance from both teams. After a quick heart to heart with the A team, they stepped up and looked incredible. Battling with Coventry and Leicester Penguins all the way to the end and taking some serious scalps in the process. Finishing third in the gala we have missed out on repeating getting to the final this year however if we can maintain that level of performance from now on we will become not only a regular top ten finisher, but a regular finalist. It was nice that Coventry's coach came over to us at the end of the gala to congratulate us saying that in another draw we would have finalled again. Even though that is true we need to learn to beat clubs like Coventry and Leicester if we want to progress not only to regional finals but national finals. A special mention to Kevin Wallbank who become the club's first ever winner of the 200 IM, in this competition, in an amazing time of 2:06. The B team were once again on sparkling form with the open swimmers dominating their events. A few DQ's which could have been avoided and 2nd place was on the cards, however they finished 4th but the progress made by the B team this year is a true barometer of how the club is progressing with a greater depth in top quality swimmers than before.

So from a late night Saturday to an early morning start Sunday for the clubs first ever Long Distance meet. A well ran meet giving swimmers the opportunity to compete in the long events normally reserved for Championships. As a club we have had a lot of positive feedback about the running and set up of this meet which is a credit to the volunteers involved. We still need more of you to step up and help out on events like this even when your child isn't swimming, as the money raised from these events helps keeps your fees down. Johnathan Hampshire who trains in our J1 squad, competed in his very first 400 IM, which is the toughest event on the programm. He knows now he is capable of anything in the pool. Hopefully this will be a lesson to all of you so that you enter more of these events and test yourself in the future.

Finally it was a mad dash down the A52 for Diddy Time Trials. Attended by over 70 swimmers, some doing races for the first time others trying to grab a place on the diddy team. If this is a sign of things to come then the future is bright indeed with some excellent swimming from the bottom end of our club with lots of great skills.

Whilst all this was going on we also had masters swimmers competing in the inter county masters championships as well, and once again our masters led the way for Derbyshire. From top to toe our club is in great shape and improving all the time. Remember to keep working hard and focus on your skills.

Friday 9 November 2012

Blog 1415: League meets

All swimmers must stay with the team right till the end of the gala we need to support each other, so swimmers will only be allowed to go to with their parents if its am emergency.