Derby Excel Christmas Cracker Meet

Our swimmers were in action at our Christmas Cracker meet on 21st/22nd December at our home pool, Moorways. It was a very well attended meet, with nearly 3000 swims over the 2 days of competition, with swimmers making the most of the last short course meet of the year, and an opportunity to post qualifying times for the County Championships and Regionals. Clubs entered from all over the country: Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester, Cambridge, Corby as well as closer to home. 

We had over 80 of our own swimmers there, from novice squads to very experienced swimmers. There were many top performances, too many to list here, but all the results can be found here: https://derbyexcel.swimresults.online/xmascracker24/

It was a great learning experience for our younger members, and hopefully will ignite the flame of competition in them, as they start their competitive swimming careers. 

Congratulations to top visiting club Repton, with City of Manchester Aquatics second, Corby third and City of Birmingham 4th. 

Top Swimmers of ours were: 

Boys 10/11 years - 5th - Jonah Hawksworth; 11th - William Smith; 21st - Thomas Buchan; 30th - S Sheshadri Kaundinya

Girls 10/11 years - 13th Katherine eixuan Liu, 32nd - Edie Geis-McCormick

Boys 12 years - 6th James Lee; 12th - Isaac Hawksworth; 27th - Oliver Heighington

Girls 12 years - 13th - Ava Carter; 14th Madeleine Heron; 16th - Sophie Woodhall; 20th - Amelia Sheil; 27th - Ada Moorhouse; 32nd - Keira Parker

Boys 13 years - 10th - Tyler Shaw; 14th - Toby Drayson; 15th - Daniel Foster; 23rd - Flynn Clark

Girls 13 years - 6th - Liv Male; 7th - Isla Johnson; 10th - Connie Bunhejee; 28th - Alice Hunt; 29th Roisin Power

Boys 14 years - 6th - Eden Saint; 7th - Isaac Ebanks; 8th - Finlay Bird; 23rd - Alexander Thompson

Girls 14 years - 11th - Olivia Lee; 12th - Mahi Bains; 13th - Scarlett Howe; 16th - Isabel Plummer; 22nd - Amelie Ratliff

Boys 15/16 years - 5th - Jacob Pemberton; 8th - Jack Harris; 14th - Evan Johnson; 18th - Calllum Whitehead; 29th - Zachary Drayson; 31st - Luke Chambers

Girls 15/16 years - 3rd - Abbie Tunnicliffe; 4th -  Anna Tyers; 9th - Miley Aram; 23rd - Meredith Newham-Miles; 28th Elena Jones; 30th - Ella Ratliff

Boys 17/over - FIRST - Laurel Roberts-Burrell; 8th - Samuel Hurst; 14th - Ezra Lambert

Girls 17/over - 18th - Charlotte Hall; 20th - Marija Romanovskaja

Many thanks to the small army of volunteers and officials who helped organise and deliver such a well run meet - Promoter Rachel Male, entry manager Kirsty Billinge, and Pippa Hibbs. 

Special mention to our Chair Babs Ingram's son Jamie (who swam for City of Manchester but is also a member of Derby Excel), who raced the 100m butterfly. Jamie posted the third fastest time in British swimming history, with 49.94s, only the fourth swimmer ever to break the 50 second barrier short course. Well done Jamie.