Blog 1642: Junior Progress

The 2nd round of the Diddy League marked what has been a very successful few weeks for the junior section of the club.

The A team competed at Bramcote, where there were many individual and relays wins on the night. Long Eaton were leading up until the final third of the gala and were just edged out into third in the gala, beaten by Bramcote 215, Worksop 195, Long Eaton A 193, Rykneld 139, Eckington 115, and Matlock 108. Considering the relative age of the swimmers competing for Long Eaton, it was great to see them competing so well against a club with the size and strength of Bramcote and staying with them almost the whole way.

The B team competed strongly at Sutton in Ashfield and gained some valuable racing experience. Overall winners on the night were Ripley, with Long Eaton finishing in 6th place, not far behind 5th placed Ilkeston. Skills were good from both squads, but what is noticeably lacking is our confidence or lack of race counting on backstroke in the final 5m of the turns and finishes. Make sure you know your stroke counts, and, if you are doing backstroke, practice it during the warm up to make sure. Our performances this year have been good, but we just need to make those little tweaks which will convert our 6ths into 5ths, and 4ths into 3rd and so on.. Work on those little things and the bigger rewards will come.

The Swadlincote Novice Gala took place in late April at Repton, where a team of very young and inexperienced swimmers competed against some top junior clubs around the County. There were some great swims and a few wins on the night coming from Bradley Evans, Jack Shaw, and Billy Seth Grimmett. Galas like this are good for developing experience and encouraging swimmers into the competitive side of the sport. It was particularly good to notice that the swimmers in the nine years and under section, and predominantly in the learn to swim/development squads are producing times that rivalled our A team a few years ago, and show what potential there is coming through the system at this club. Its great progress for the club that regardless of the squad swimmers are in, they can still compete well against other clubs. The final results on the night were…
Swadlincote A 205, Long Eaton 151, Coalville 146, Burton 119, Swadlincote B 111


Long Eaton sent over twenty swimmers to the Eckington Open Meet. This was one of two open meets going on this weekend, with the Derventio Excel Meet taking place at Sheffield. In what was a very well scheduled meet, there were many great swims and PB’s. For swimmers to build on from the success of the Rykneld Open Meet, and still better their times, was a great achievement. Our skills, particularly underwater, were the best on display, but there is still much more room for improvement.

At the Derventio Excel Open Meet, further Midland qualifications were added, with Esther Halford achieving Midland times in the 200/400 free, Sian James achieving a 100 free qualification standard, and Josh Beech achieving the 100m free standard. This raises the total to 5 age group Midland qualifiers, which is a massive increase on the one Midland qualifier from the 2012 season. Other swimmers were under a second off their Midland time, and Katie sloan achieved times on the 100 Free/Back within 4% of the National standard.