Hampshire Counties 2016 - Weekend 1

Last weekend was the first of three weekends of the Hampshire County Championships, and Bluefins swimmers got of to a great start! The first round of the championships was based in the Olympic size 50 metre pool at Portsmouth, and staged the distance events and also some relays.

This meet was the first time this season that most of the swimmers competed in a long course (50 metre) pool, and provided an excellent opportunity for swimmers to prepare for future long course events later in the season. 

The first event was the Girls 400 Individual Medley, one of the toughest events in the competition programme, and one which requires swimmers to show all round swimming ability due to the fact that it encompasses all strokes.

Bluefins girls showed some great pacing and skills, with six out of the seven girls ranking in the top ten in their age group. Millie Trist was our highest ranked swimmer in the event, narrowly missing becoming County Champion by less than 1.5 seconds!  

The next event was the boys 400 Freestyle, and the two Bluefins swimmers, James Marston and John Holt did a great job, maintaining their skills and stroke length throughout the race.

The girls 10-12 yrs relays followed the 400 metre events on Saturday, and the Bluefins teams, including Jessica Bettesworth, Emily Rogerson, Lexi Bird, and Chloe Garlinge, performed superbly.  They all worked together and handled the pressure well, especially considering this was the first time the girls had competed in a County Championship competition, and also a long course pool!

Last event on the Saturday was one of my personal favourites, the 800 metres Freestyle. Alice Mardell, Isla Haynes and Mille Trist competed in the 13yrs age group and all three girls attained lifetime bests, in one instance by over a minute! Not only were the times fast, they also worked well on specific areas of their race, particularly speed into and out of turns ( a must for any aspiring distance swimmer) which will stand them in good stead for future races.

Laura Helyar, swimming in the 14 yr age group, did a fantastic job in this event, she showed great determination and toughness, particularly in the last part of the race where she pushed on to a really strong finish, recording her first ever long course 800 time, which was only a few seconds slower than the short course time she recorded just a few months ago, no mean feat considering short course swimming is nearly always considerably faster than long course, manly due to the extra speed swimmers can get from there being more turns in the race.

Last swimmer up for Bluefins in this, the longest of the events for girls, was Molly Goffin. Molly competed in the 16 & over age group and was the club’s most experienced female competitior at the competition. And she certainly used her experience to great effect!  Beating her lifetime best by nearly 20 seconds. With a very consistently paced race, she actually negative split the swim (the second half was faster than the first!). On reflection, Molly said she could actually have gone out a little faster at the start, which is an exciting prospect, considering she is now only a few seconds away from dipping under the 10 minute mark! Recording a time of 10.04.60 was good enough for Molly to attain 4^th place.

Day 2 saw the 400 meter events reversed, with the girls competing in the 400 Freestyle, and boys in the 400 Medley. Six out of the nine swims from Bluefins swimmers were top 10 placings, with all bar one being in a personal best long course time.

The relay races on Sunday provided great excitement for the team. The boys 10-12 yr teams, made up of James Marston, Alex Heath, Conor Cherrington, George Dillow and Alex Cleaver, showed excellent technique and speed, and attained 5^th Place in the Freestyle event, and 4^th in the Medley. The distance each swimmer races is 50 metres, so it’s not unusual to see younger swimmers bashing up the pool with questionable technique and skills over such a short distance. It was therefore fantastic to see our boys swimming not only fast, but also with good form – something which will undoubtedly be a great asset to them over the coming years as they progress in their swimming careers.

Not wishing to be outshone by their younger team mates, the girls 13-14 yrs teams stepped up with some great performances. The teams, including Julia Lebosse, Millie Rugman, Millie Trist and Charlyne Lebosse did a great job. The Freestyle team narrowly missed a bronze medal place by less than a second, and the Medley team took top honours and became County Champions.

The last race of the weekend was the longest of all, the boys 1500 metres freestyle. Two Bluefins swimmers competed in this tough event, and both swam well. Lewis Fenn recorded his first long course time in the event. He paced himself so consistently that 28 out of the 30 split times for each length were within a second of each other. Graeme Richardson also showed real determination and toughness in his race, recording a lifetime best of 18.41, which earned him 4^th place in the 15 yr age category.

Next weekend sees the second round of the championships, for swimmers aged 14 and under, being staged at the short course pool at Waterlooville, and if the first round was anything to go by, we should see some exciting racing from the Bluefins age group swimmers!